Standardised Assessment and Reporting System for functioning information (StARS) - Erarbeitung einer Implementierungsagenda für ausgewählte Anwendungsbereiche im Schweizer Gesundheitssystem

Background: Functioning is, in addition to mortality and morbidity, one of the most important health indicators. Health indicators are important across all levels of the healthcare system: For clinical patient management on the micro level, for performance measurement and comparisons of clinics on the meso level, as well as for cantonal and national planning on the macro level. In particular in the field of rehabilitation, the focus lies on optimizing a person's functioning. However, the assessment and reporting of functioning information in practice is often not standardized and there exists a large variety of related clinical assessment instruments. This makes comparability and learning from functioning information in terms of continuous improvement at all levels of the health system difficult. Therefore, the aim of the NRP74 StARS project was the development of a Standardized Assessment and Reporting System (StARS) for functioning information in order to support targeted and high-quality rehabilitation. The project dealt with two application examples of a StARS: Part A) The Swiss national quality reports of the ANQ (National Association for Quality Development) in rehabilitation, Part B) Clinical decision-making in rehabilitation after spinal cord injury. In order to develop strategies together with relevant stakeholders on how a StARS can be implemented in the two application examples, a stakeholder dialogue including a stakeholder brief was carried out as part of the NRP74 StARS project implementation strategy. Methods: To inform stakeholders about a StARS for functioning information, a stakeholder brief, a short preparatory document, was developed and distributed amongst the participants of the stakeholder dialogue prior to the event. The stakeholder brief was designed to inform about the project, its findings and application areas in a user-friendly language. The stakeholder brief included SWOT (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analyses for four application areas of a StARS in Switzerland and was developed based on nine key informant interviews. The stakeholder dialogue was designed to inform relevant stakeholders about the NRP74 StARS project and to mutually discuss and develop strategies for implementing a StARS for functioning information in different application areas in Switzerland. The stakeholders who participated in the one-day dialogue were identified in consultation with the project's advisory board. Both, the stakeholder brief