Short description
Explains guidelines for evaluation methods applied to health services. This book describes approaches to evaluation in healthcare and policymaking, and challenges some of the assumptions of the evidence based healthcare movement. It describes principles and methods for evaluating health treatments, services, and policies.
Long description
The questions are no longer whether to use or make an evaluation, but how well we use one or carry one out. "As both volume and skills in healthcare increase, there is a parallel increase in the need to evaluate the outcomes and the effects of services rendered. In this book John Ovretveit furnishes us with timely, thoughtful and thorough guidelines for evaluation methods applied to health services." - Gudmund Hernes, Minister of Health, Norway. A basic textbook which describes the range of approaches to evaluation in healthcare and policymaking, and challenges some of the assumptions of the evidence based healthcare movement. For health practitioners, managers and policy advisers who need to use or carry out an evaluation, but who may be confused by the variety of approaches and about what we mean by 'evidence'. The book is also useful to researchers who need to know about the strengths and weaknesses of different types of evaluation and about the practice and politics of evaluation. It describes principles, concepts and methods for evaluating health treatments, services, policies and organizational interventions.;The strength of this book is its even-handed and accessible overview of the many different evaluation perspectives and methods used in the health sector. Its practical and multidisciplinary approach shows how to ensure that evaluation results in action. The author draws on his eighteen years experience as an evaluator and gives frameworks and examples which have been tried and tested in workshops, teaching and distance learning materials which explain the complexities of evaluation. The reader will find this an invaluable introduction and reference book for understanding the increasingly important role which evaluation is playing in everyday clinical, managerial and policymaking work.Winner of the 1998 European Health Management Association distinguished publication award.
Review
"I recommend this as one of the best recent introductory texts on health service evaluation. It is clearly written, uncluttered by methodological details that can be found in other texts and is broad enough to be relevant to a wide range of people. Useful appendices provide learning exercises and a critical appraisal framework for analysing an evaluation and assessing evidence." - Health Service Journal "As an introductory text this book can be strongly recommended. It covers the body of evaluation theory. The new emphasis on evidence-based health care and the advent of clinical governance has highlighted particular gaps in the training and preparation of health service managers. Increasingly, they need to understandhow to commission and critique evaluations. For that group in particular, this text provides an excellent starting point." - British Journal of Health Care Management "Ovretveit provides the reader with an enlightening account of how evaluation might be applied from four different perspectives within a health service scenario: experimental evaluation, economic evaluation, developmental evaluation and managerial evaluation. Whilst in chapters five to eight he provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each. The wholetext achieves a strong sense of cohesion from a thorough consideration of the nature and design of evaluative methods and culminates with proposals for maximizing evaluative procedures within health care." - Medical Sociology News
Table of contents
- What is evaluation? Evaluation purpose, theory and perspectives Six designs Seven case examples of evaluations Experimental evaluations Economic evaluations Developmental evaluations Managerial evaluations Planning and managing an evaluation The practice and politics of evaluation Data gathering methods Data gathering concepts, analysis and interpretation Evaluating quality Making more use of evaluations References Appendix 1 Definitions Appendix 2: Framework for analysing an evaluation Appendix 3: Six evaluation designs - 'empty' formats Appendix 4: Ten learning exercises Index