Table of contents

  • Introduction
  • Background
  • Objectives and terms of reference
  • Research methods
  • A critical review of the literature: development of the concept of outcomes in health
  • An examination of the concepts of outcome in the health area and its assessment and measurement
  • The identification of outcome indicators for different health services 
  • An outline of appropriate methods of measuring outcomes for different types of health services
  • An examination of possible experimental designs for obtaining health services outcome data
  • A determination of the feasibility of a project to study the impact of health services on the health status of the population in the western metropolitan region of Sydney
  • Recommendations for the use of health status measures in outcome studies
  • An assessment of the relevance and applicability of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis to health services evaluation
  • An assessment of the scope, relevance and adequacy of existing health data collections as indicators of outcome
  • The identification of gaps in existing knowledge of health services outcomes and options for filling these gaps
  • Recommendations: an outline of the options for priorities for the identification and collection of basic outcome data
  • References