How to reduce unwanted treatment variation in healthcare

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26 August 2024

The same ailment, but a different diagnosis and treatment. The treatment you receive sometimes depends on where you visit a doctor. A patient can therefore receive more expensive or less good care. Gynaecologist and health economics researcher Maarten Vink investigated how such practice variation can be reduced.

Much research has been done on practice variation, but the results are rarely used. Vink and his colleagues looked at how healthcare providers can use such research to improve their own practices.

He states that existing datasets can be better linked to each other. This will provide more detailed information about the quality of care in different hospitals, and it will be easier to see where improvements are needed. For example, healthcare providers will no longer only know how their region is performing, but also how they are performing as a hospital.

Abnormal Pap smear
The researchers looked at what happens in the event of an abnormal Pap smear in the population survey for cervical cancer. Vink: "We demonstrated that there was variation in both diagnosis and treatment on a hospital level . The number of control smears and treatments for abnormal smears can be reduced. All hospitals in the Netherlands were given insight into how they could improve this care by means of our informative and detailed feedback information."

Staff shortage
In a time with both an increasing demand for care and a shortage of staff in care, it is necessary to critically assess which care is meaningful and necessary. Vink therefore also spoke with various stakeholders, including the Dutch Federation of Medical Specialists, the National Healthcare Institute and health insurers. He proposes various policy measures to better implement appropriate care, such as making feedback and quality information available on a larger scale, and adequate financial agreements with hospitals.

Vink will defend his dissertation on September 6.