The Comprehensive Public Healthcare System of Catalonia (SISCAT) Atlases of Quality aim to evaluate the quality of care in relation to specific diseases or procedures in the Catalan territory with a focus on outcomes of care in order to promote best practices. The first Atlas of Quality aimed to assess the quality of integrated care for chronic patients.

Methodology was articulated in four stages:(i) Establishment of a conceptual framework of reference specific for each intervention/technology being assessed, (ii) Definition and consensus of the assessment indicators, and (iii) Implementation of indicators using the Basic Health Areas (ABS) of Catalonia as a unit of analysis, comparing ABS with vs without the intervention (such as integrated care for chronicity). Indicators were obtained from the SISCAT databases and implemented through risk adjustment models. For performance assessment, we calculated the observed and expected indicator rates for each ABS, and for the benchmarking analysis, these ratios were represented in funnel plots (Confidence Interval, CI 95 percent and 99.8 percent for exclusion zones). (iv) Evaluation of the intervention and identification of specific success factors.

For the assessment of integrated care interventions for chronicity, the defined framework in stage 1 was base on the Kaiser Pyramid (population distribution), and the Porter and the Donabedian's approaches (structure, processes, outcomes) (1). In stage 2 more than 500 experts, using several qualitative techniques, considered 18 indicators as relevants and feasibles for the assessment (2). Ten of them were implemented in stage 3 for congestive heart failure and pulmonary obstructive chronic disease. Significant values were found both in ABS with and without chronicity care programms (phase 3).

The subsequent analysis (phase 4) will allow identification of practices of each ABS that best explain these results. Some limitations must be considered such as the availability of the consensued indicators in the SISCAT databases.