Jason Sutherland and the Healthcare Funding Research and Policy Team are currently involved in two major overarching research programs.
Organization, Delivery and Funding of Healthcare
In this program of research, we study how health care systems are organized, how they deliver care and how they are funded. Currently, we are studying the effects of financial incentives on different sectors of the health care system – how different providers respond to incentives provided by provinces. In a number of provinces, we have looked at providers’ volume, efficiency and quality of care relative to new financial
incentives being introduced by Ministries of Health. Recently, we have completed work on British Columbia’s Patient-Focused Funding (PFF) initiative, emulated Medicare’s approach to discounting payments for poor quality in hospitals, examined quality and effectiveness of care over the continuum of care, and pay-for-performance to reduce wait times in the Emergency Department.
Patient Reported Outcomes
Patient recorded outcome measures (PROMs) are a form of standardized and validated questionnaires which patients complete to provide information about their perceived functional wellbeing and health status. Specifically, patients use scores to describe the difficulty of performing or completing certain tasks or activities associated with daily life. PROMs are used as a tool to measure the wellbeing of patients using specific factors which include but are not limited to: pain, depression, physical and social function, and anxiety. To learn more about PROMs and patient recorded outcome research please click here.
