Selected core set of quality indicators accepted by stakeholders based on the perceived added value as quality improvement tools
| Type of indicator | Quality indicator description | Overall mean/percentage# | Range# |
| Physical capacity measured with the 6MWT | |||
| Process | The proportion of patients with COPD who underwent physical therapy treatment and who completed the 6MWT pre- and post-treatment to evaluate physical capacity | 60.7% | 26.1–88.8% |
| Outcome | The mean change score ±95% CI of patients with COPD who underwent physical therapy treatment and pre- and post-treatment measurement with the 6MWT to evaluate physical capacity | 2.8 m | −5.4 to 13.4 |
| Health-related quality of life measured with the CCQ | |||
| Process | The proportion of patients with COPD who underwent physical therapy treatment and who completed the CCQ pre- and post-treatment to evaluate aspects of health-related quality of life | 62.6% | 14.8–88.7% |
| Outcome | The mean change score ±95% CI of patients with COPD who underwent physical therapy treatment and pre- and post-treatment measurement with the CCQ to evaluate health-related quality of life | –0.1 | 0.3 to –0.6 |
| Quadriceps strength measured with the HDD | |||
| Process | The proportion of patients with COPD who underwent physical therapy treatment and who completed the HHD pre- and post-treatment to evaluate quadriceps strength | 31.4% | 5.9–87.5% |
| Outcome | The mean change score ±95% CI of patients with COPD who underwent physical therapy treatment and pre- and post-treatment measurement with the HHD to evaluate quadriceps strength | 7.5 Nm | 2.7–13.1 |
| Baseline measures for the 6MWT, CCQ, accelerometer and patient characteristics that can be used in a profiling system to stratify patients into subgroups for care¶ | |||
| Process | The proportion of patients with COPD who underwent physical therapy treatment and who completed the baseline measurements for the 6MWT, CCQ, accelerometer, gender, age, body weight and number of exacerbations in the past year | 2.4% | |
6MWT: 6-min walk test; CCQ: Clinical COPD Questionnaire; GPE-DV: Global Perceived Effect – Dutch Version; HHD: hand-held dynamometer; MRC: Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale; MCID: minimal clinically important difference. Only outcomes of patients that were included that were treated for ≥3 months. #The overall mean/percentage and range are the outcomes of the physical therapy practices that provided ≥10 cases, used for describing and selecting the quality indicators for the core set. ¶Baseline measures and patient characteristics selected to allocate patients into subgroups based on the Dutch model for exercise-based care in primary care [36].