ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners1997
The facilitator effect: results from a four-year follow-up of children with asthma.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 1997. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Caseworker-assigned discharge plans to prevent hospital readmission for acute exacerbations in children with chronic respiratory illness.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Economic evidence for nonpharmacological asthma management interventions: A systematic review.Allergy · 2018Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of practice facilitation within primary care settings.Annals of family medicinePooled it
- Trial
- A real-world stepped wedge cluster randomized trial of practice facilitation to improve cardiovascular care.Implementation science : IS · 2015Trial
- Practice-tailored facilitation to improve pediatric preventive care delivery: a randomized trial.Pediatrics · 2014Trial
- The effectiveness of a semi-tailored facilitator-based intervention to optimise chronic care management in general practice: a stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial.BMC family practice · 2014Trial
- Cost savings associated with improving appropriate and reducing inappropriate preventive care: cost-consequences analysis.BMC health services research · 2005Trial
- 'In the Moment': An Analysis of Facilitator Impact During a Quality Improvement Process.Group facilitation : a research & applications journal · 2010Article
- Improving prevention in primary care: Evaluating the sustainability of outreach facilitation.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2008Article
- Article
- Introducing a quality improvement programme to primary healthcare teams.Quality in health care : QHC · 1998Article
- No to mandatory continuing medical education, yes to mandatory practice auditing and professional educational development.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 1998Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA long-term evaluation of the process and outcomes of primary and secondary care is required to establish whether audit facilitators can improve the care of childhood asthma.
aimTo examine the long-term effect of an intervention by an audit facilitator on the management of children with asthma, and to investigate the implications for health service costs.
methodA 4-year follow up was conducted of an intervention and control group totalling 2557 children aged 1-15 years from 12 general practices in the Tayside region. Primary care consultations, prescriptions, hospital contacts and health service costs 1 year before and 3 years after a facilitator visited practices were recorded. The facilitator encouraged the diagnosis and treatment of childhood asthma in the intervention group.
resultsFavourable changes in consultation patterns, prescriptions and reduced hospital admissions seen during the intervention year did not persist in subsequent years. Two and three years after the facilitator visit the process and outcome of care was similar in both groups. The reduction in health service costs seen in the intervention group was equivalent to the cost of employing a facilitator.
conclusionThe effect of a facilitator lasts only for the period of intervention. Enthusiasts will say that improving patient care without increasing health service costs justifies the widespread deployment of facilitators. Others more interested in long-term outcomes may disagree.
Indexed as
Identifiers
9167319PMC1312922What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.