Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Participants: organizations with a primary focus on healthcare provision

Articles published before 2003

Intervention: either changes in or redesigns of processes in healthcare organizations or healthcare innovations with a clearly described objective to improve quality of care

Articles in which the intervention, data collection methods, data analysis or research context is not described

Outcome measures: quality of care, changeability, process efficiency, patient satisfaction, employee satisfaction, costs of care, facilitators or barriers to implementation, equity, timeliness of care, patient safety, effectiveness.

Articles published in languages other than English.

Outcome measures should be clearly described and be consistent before and after intervention

Types of studies: RCTs, controlled before-and-after studies, before-and-after studies, interrupted time series, case studies (if using before-and-after measures), mixed methods studies (if using before-and-after measures), observational studies (if using before-and-after measures)

Articles without abstract, articles without before-and-after measurement

Editorials, viewpoints, non-articles, interviews