 - Improving
Patient Handoffs
- Hospital caregivers must be discouraged from viewing patient handoffs
as merely the transfer of information. The ideal patient handoff
is an active discussion between the transferring and receiving
caregiver. The caregiver that simply rattles off a series of
facts about the patient and then leaves has not fulfilled his
or her duty.
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- Measuring
Continuity of Patient Care
- High-quality patient care involves more than the excellent provision
of discrete health services over a defined time period. It also
includes a full and sustained continuum of care. It is important
to evaluate the elements that impact patient transitions in the
care continuum to ensure safe and effective health care delivery.
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- Use
Questions to Find Solutions
- When opportunities for improvement are identified, system analysis
techniques can lead to more effective solutions. By asking simple,
yet powerful questions, you’ll gain a better understanding of
the system or problem so that the best improvement options are
selected.
Track
Progress of Improvement Projects- To keep your organization’s improvement projects running smoothly
it’s important to monitor completion of improvement actions to
ensure deadlines are met. Accountability and oversight are critical
to achieving successful quality and patient safety improvement
projects.
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- Reduce
Equipment-Related Adverse Events
- Equipment problems are a frequent cause of untoward patient incidents.
Learn how to alleviate some of the problems with an effective
equipment procurement, maintenance, and monitoring program.
- Community
Continuum of Care Planning
- Effective continuity of patient care does not happen without significant
cooperation among all care providers in the community. Development
and periodic updating of the community’s continuum of care
plan can help to assure that people needing health care services
will get them.
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- Plug Your Building Security Risks
- Facility security and control of access is a safety and quality concern
for health care organizations. By considering four important factors
that affect security, organizations can develop better approaches
for managing security risks.
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- Does Your Data Survive the Quality Test?
- To meet the varied needs of information users quality departments
must consider all components of data quality. Accuracy is important,
but without attention to the other dimensions of quality, accuracy
alone will not satisfy users. Find out if your data survives the
quality test.
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- Outcomes Based Practice vs. Clinical Paths
- Clinical paths are important patient management tools for achieving
outcomes management goals in health care organizations. However,
unlike the situation in the early 1990s, clinical paths are now just
one of many different tools and techniques that are being used to
improve patient outcomes and reduce unwarranted practice variation.
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- Creating Valid
Profiles of Physician Hospital Practices
- Is there undesirable variation in how physicians manage hospitalized patients? To
answer this question, hospital must create valid practice profiles that consider
differences in patient severity of illness as well as deviations from generally accepted
standards of care.
It's Time for a Patient Safety Culture Revolution- Improving the safety of patient care
requires more than process changes. To keep patients from being harmed by the effects of
health care services, everyone must value the importance of patient safety improvement.
Use Practice Guidelines to Meet JCAHO Standards- Clinical practice guidelines are an
important tool for measuring and improving the quality of patient care. Joint
Commission standards require that guidelines be used to develop "ideal" patient
care practices and evaluate performance.
Link Staff Training With Improvement Goals- To continuously improve the quality and
safety of patient care, healthcare organizations must link employee education and training
programs with strategic improvement goals.
RCA Team Should Share
Lessons Learned- Gather valuable information from your root
cause analysis teams to improve the success of future incident investigations and enhance
patient safety efforts in your facility.
Eliminating Human Errors in Medical Practice- Many of the simple mistakes made by health
care professionals can be eliminated by using of point-of-care reminders. Learn how
to design reminders that make it easier for people to do the right thing.
Evaluating the Long-Term Impact of Patient Education- Health care professionals
have always been involved in educating patients and their families. To prove the
value of this education, we must learn how to measure the long-term effects.
Process for Handling Patient Grievances- To meet the HCFA
Conditions of Participation regulations, hospitals must have a systematic mechanism for
investigating patient grievances. Learn how to create a process that complies with
requirements.
High Performing Hospitals: Do You Measure Up?What causes
one hospital to be more successful than another at implementing new patient management
initiatives? This article describes what differentiates the exceptional organization and
provides suggestions on how to transform under-achievers into high-performers.
Use Hazard Analysis to Improve Patient Safety
Patient care processes are constantly
changing and people adapt tasks to their own needs. Formal checks and balances can be
abandoned as functions change over time. That's why periodic hazard analysis of high-risk
processes is important for ensuring continued patient safety.
Quality Managers' Role in Outcomes Management
Studying the relationship between health
care processes and patient outcomes is not a new science however it has assumed greater
importance in today's economic climate. Learn how quality managers can help support
outcomes management projects.
Measuring the
Economic Benefit of Case Management
In today's cost conscious health care
environment case managers must prove their economic worth as well as their impact on
clinical outcomes. Learn how cost benefit analysis can be used to judge the monetary value
of case management activities.
Get Your Quality Planning in
Order
If performance improvement in your
organization lacks clear direction, it's time to revisit your quality planning process.
Leaders must agree on which key processes need the most attention before you can
aggressively address the differences between current performance and your desired
strategic goals.
Provider Performance Report Cards
Provider-specific report cards
are growing in popularity. It's important that health care organizations
understand what to include in these performance reports and how
to effectively share their data with the public.
Quality Management in Home Care Services
Home health agencies should identify
important aspects of care and regularly measure the performance of home care staff.
The Hospital Governing Board's Role in Quality Management
Learn how you can improve the partnership
between the governing board and the quality management program.
Incorporate System Analysis with Peer Review Activities
The value of physician peer review
activities can be greatly enhanced when breakdowns in health care systems and processes
can be identified and performance improved.
Hospital Utilization Management "Quick Fix" Solutions
Reduce hospitalization costs by
implementing one or more of these "quick fix" solutions.
Performance Measurement in Behavioral Health
Because collection of performance
measurement data is very resource-intensive, it is important to carefully select measures
that fulfill both internal and external requirements.
The Risk Management Side of Staff Training
It's important to understand the
potential liabilities of education and training programs and take steps to reduce these
risks.
How to Conduct a Thorough Sentinel Event Investigation
A careful investigation of the
circumstances leading up to the sentinel event will help physicians, managers, and staff
discover the root causes.
Don't Waste Your Utilization Management Resources!
To survive in today's managed care
environment, health care organizations must be cost-efficient, quality providers of
service.
Overcoming Clinical Path Implementation Barriers
Overcome your clinical path
implementation barriers with understanding, education, and a quality-first attitude.
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