ArticleBMJ open2020
Evidence-based quality indicators for primary healthcare in association with the risk of hospitalisation: a population-based cohort study in Switzerland.
Article in BMJ open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quality indicators for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in primary care: A systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Medication Review and Enhanced Information Transfer at Discharge of Older Patients with Polypharmacy: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in Swiss Hospitals.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Trial
- Mapping Quality Indicators in Primary Health Care: A Scoping Review of Contemporary Approaches and Persistent Measurement Gaps.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Influence of the Workplace on Influenza and COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance Among Swiss Healthcare Workers During Season 2021/22.International journal of public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Effects of Primary Healthcare Quality and Effectiveness on Hospitalization Indicators in Brazil.Journal of market access & health policy · 2025Article
- Acceptability of Components for a Mandatory Quality Improvement Framework: A Survey Among Swiss General Practitioners.Health services insights · 2025Article
- Does the implementation of an incentive scheme increase adherence to diabetes guidelines? A retrospective cohort study of managed care enrollees.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Attitudes and beliefs of older adults and caregivers towards deprescribing in French-speaking countries: a multicenter cross-sectional study.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2022Article
- Systematic development of quality indicators for skin cancer management in primary care: a mixed-methods study protocol.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Ambulatory Healthcare Use Profiles of Patients With Diabetes and Their Association With Quality of Care: A Cross-Sectional Study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe quality of ambulatory care in Switzerland is widely unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the recently proposed quality indicators (QIs) based on a nationwide healthcare claims database and determine their association with the risk of subsequent hospitalisation at patient-level.
designRetrospective cohort study.
settingInpatient and outpatient claims data of a large health insurance in Switzerland covering all regions and population strata.
participants520 693 patients continuously insured during 2015 and 2016. MEASURES: A total of 24 QIs were obtained by adapting the existing instruments to the Swiss national context and measuring at patient-level. The association between each QI and hospitalisation in the subsequent year was assessed using multiple logistic regression models.
resultsThe proportion of patients with good adherence to QIs was high for the secondary prevention of diabetes and myocardial infarction (glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) control, 89%; aspirin use, 94%) but relatively low for polypharmacy (53%) or using potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) in the elderly (PIM, 33%). Diabetes-related indicators such as the HbA1c control were significantly associated with a lower risk of hospitalisation (OR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.80 to 0.95), whereas the occurrence of polypharmacy and PIM increased the risk of hospitalisation in the following year (OR, 1.57/1.08; 95% CI, 1.51 to 1.64/1.05 to 1.12).
conclusionsThis is the first study to evaluate the recently presented QIs in Switzerland using nationwide real-life data. Our study suggests that the quality of healthcare, as measured by these QIs, varied. The majority of QIs, in particular QIs reflecting chronic care and medication use, are considered beneficial markers of healthcare quality as they were associated with reduced risk of hospitalisation in the subsequent year. Results from this large practical test on real-life data show the feasibility of these QIs and are beneficial in selecting the appropriate QIs for healthcare implementation in general practice.
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