[Application of the QuavaTAR model to vaccination services in Latium, Italy]

Abstract

Definition, categorization, and measuring of Quality have become increasingly important concerns in the era of managed care and cost containment. Most attempts to develop quality indicators have been based on outcome measures. The Donabedian model of Structure-Process-Outcome has been universally accepted and used as the basis for much of the work addressing quality and outcomes. Adequate indicators for vaccination services are scant therefore are applied to this setting a new quality measurement process based on a probabilistic approach called MQS (Misure di Qualità in Sanità-Quality Measures in Healthcare), developed by our working group since 2005 in several hospital settings. This new application, called "Quality in Vaccination Theory and Research"(QuaVaTAR), was used to measure the efficiency of the vaccination centers of three Local Health Units (ASL RM B, RM F, RM H) in Lazio Region (Italy). The measure method combines the evidences obtained from the supplied services (objective measurements) and the judgments of the services' stakeholders collected by an "ad hoc" questionnaire (subjective measurements). The subjective evaluations were expressed with a number (between 0-100) representing a personal judgment on the organizational and the communicational efficiency and the comfort of the "ideal" vaccination center. The objective measurements were collected in performance grids on the same points investigated with the questionnaire. Combining objective and subjective measures we obtained "Quality Scores", useful to make improvements in the vaccination centers and to compare different services.