On-going project (October 2012 - October 2016)
Origin of funding: European Commission
The proposed research responds to the call for research into the ‘Quality, Efficiency and Solidarity of Health Systems’. European countries are reforming their health systems to improve health care delivery.
One of the ways they are doing this is by changing skill mix within teams delivering health services: extending the roles of existing health professions and introducing new ones. This project undertakes a systematic evaluation of the impact of these ‘new professional roles’ on practice, outcomes and costs in a range of different health care settings within European Union and Associate Countries. It details the nature, scope and contribution of the new professional roles, evaluate their impact on clinical practice and outcomes, and identify their scope to improve the integration of care.
This project conducts economic evaluation to identify the cost effectiveness of the new professional roles, identify optimal models for delivery of health care and the consequences of these for management of human resources and workforce planning. Study design is cross-sectional and multi-level. A mixed methods approach will combine analysis of routinely collected data and primary data generated through interviews and questionnaires to health professionals, managers and patients. Data analysis will employ multi-level modelling techniques.
In the scope of the project the following analyses and studies will be performed by TEPAV:
- To detail the key features of the health delivery systems in the countries of the EU, associate and applicant countries;
- To describe the detailed skill mix of the health workforce in the primary and secondary care sectors in the EU, Associate and Applicant countries;
- To identify the new professional roles, the numbers working in them and the clinical areas of employment;
- To identify the contribution of the new professional roles to the delivery of health care;
- To identify and evaluate a framework for mapping the skills and competencies of the health workforce;
- To select from among the clinical areas identified in two specific care pathways as the focus of the research to be undertaken in this project;
- To develop and conduct a questionnaire survey of health care professionals and managers;
- To generate a report on the impact of the new professional roles on clinical practice and the organisation of care;
- To conduct a questionnaire survey of patient experience and satisfaction;
- To generate a report 'The impact of the new professional roles on patient experience and satisfaction';
- To collect and analyse new data on hospital processes, productivity and health outcomes which can be used to assess the impact of the new professional roles;
- To undertake an economic evaluation to model the costs and effects associated with the new professional roles;
- To investigate the balance of cost and benefits and to identify incentives for an increased role for the new professional roles;
- To detail how the new professional roles might be employed to improve the integration of care within care pathways;
- To describe new optimal models of care for the selected care pathways;
- To identify solutions to barriers identified at organisational and team level informed by examples of good practice;
- To produce examples of care integration and of the costs associated with financing these pathways;
- To build a workforce planning model for each care pathway that reflects the dynamic interaction between workforce skill mix (including different approaches to labour substitution) and the quality and cost of care for patients;
- To provide a skill mix benchmark for previously identified optimal models of care against which service providers can evaluate the efficiency of existing skill mix.
You can reach the web site of the project via the link below: