ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To prepare a set of quality and safety indicators for Hospitals of the «Agencia Valenciana de Salud¼. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The qualitative technique Metaplan® was applied in order to gather proposals on sustainability and nursing. The catalogue of the «Spanish Society of Quality in Healthcare¼ was adopted as a starting point for clinical indicators. Using the Delphi technique, 207 professionals were invited to participate in the selecting the most reliable and feasible indicators. Lastly, the resulting proposal was validated with the managers of 12 hospitals, taking into account the variability, objectivity, feasibility, reliability and sensitivity, of the indicators. RESULTS: Participation rates varied between 66.67% and 80.71%. Of the 159 initial indicators, 68 were prioritized and selected (21 economic or management indicators, 22 nursing indicators, and 25 clinical or hospital indicators). Three of them were common to all three categories and two did not match the specified criteria during the validation phase, thus obtaining a final catalogue of 63 indicators. CONCLUSIONS: A set of quality and safety indicators for Hospitals was prepared. They are currently being monitored using the hospital information systems.
