From research to practice: How proper analysis can improve clinical outcomes

Introduction: Burn injury is still a public health problem in developing countries. These countries are still working on the improvement of patients’ outcomes. The regular survey can be helpful in detecting the improvable processes in the medical system. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of awareness of outcomes on clinical practice.Methods: All acutely injured burn patients admitted to burn center of Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad, Iran from 2010 to 2017 were included. Clinical and demographic data were obtained from the hospital information system or patients medical records. The first admission was considered for analysis in patients with more than one admission. SPSS 25 was used to perform the binary logistic regression with the backward conditional method.Results: Overall 6098 patients were included. Using regression analysis by controlling for the most important factor for severity of burn condition (i.e. ABSI) it was revealed that the clinical outcome was improving: comparing to the year 2010 as baseline, odds ratio of death was increasing in the first 5 years but in the recent 2 years it was decreasing: 2011 (OR=1.65, CI95%=1.13-2.42), 2012 (OR=2.17, CI95%=1.48-3.17), 2013 (OR=2.21, CI95%=1.48-3.29), 2014 (OR=2.56, CI95%=1.72-3.80), 2015 (OR=2.84, CI95%=1.91-4.22), 2016 (OR=2.32, CI95%=1.57-3.43), 2017 (OR=1.97, CI95%=1.32-2.95). The calculated LA50 from 2010 to 2017 was 71.7, 68.0, 59.9, 60.5, 60.1, 57.7, 61.8, 62.8, respectively.Conclusion: One of the critical elements of quality improvement is regular survey and considering the clinical findings for improvements. It seems that since 2015, when these data were first analyzed and reported, this department was successful in improvement in the quality of care.