A view from health services research and outcomes measurement

Depicted in this presentation is the relationship of the aims of the original articles in this issue--using theory in a substantive way; introducing a strong focus on the organization as a contributor to patient, provider, and system outcomes; accounting for organizational level; and moving the field toward a view of research utilization as an intermediate, not terminal, outcome--to outcomes research in health services generally and in nursing health services research more specifically. The insights and innovations described in this set of articles contribute significantly to the literature on research use in healthcare, specifically including the need to account more fully for organizational structure and hierarchy than has been the case to date in health services outcomes research, as well as a strong intimation that research use is not only an important intervening variable in the causal chain producing outcomes at the patient, provider, and system levels but also a latent or unobservable variable.