Background: In an attempt to enhance the quality of the care we deliver as a Group in the hospital, we undertook the formation of a Quality Assurance Committee. It is composed of 3 MD’s, one of whom is Administration level, an APRN and a PAC. It is peer level and protected, and we invited all providers to submit cases where the provider felt the care parted from the expected norm. We were gratified to see that the Group did indeed become comfortable with the process and all the privacy safeguards we put into place to protect the information.
The delivery of healthcare is constantly changing, therefore the need for sustaining and improving the quality of care being delivered should be maintained. As the majority of Bridgeport Hospital’s inpatient care is provided by Hospitalists, an internal Quality Assurance (QA) program was established to identify and improve internal areas of concern.
Purpose: To identify and review cases to improve the quality of care delivered and educate and/or redesign how care should be delivered by the Hospitalist Service. The committee will promote team reviews and learnings from the process to create a climate of continual quality improvement in patient care.
A multifaceted Quality Assurance (QA) committee was established to assess, measure, and improve the quality of care and performance on an ongoing basis. A standardized process for identifying, reviewing, reporting, and improving cases was created. Carefully de-identified cases were reviewed by the committee; multiple areas for improvement per case were aggregated, and shared with the Hospitalist Department and Hospital Leadership.
Description: For the time period of November 2017 – August 2018, 28 cases were reported to the QA committee, identifying 33 areas for improvement. The majority of areas for improvement had systematic flaws [17] identified which resulted in education and creation of workflows [13] and the creation of a multidisciplinary pharmacy group that created electronic alerts for high risk medications.
We have just published and distributed the inaugural QA Newsletter, which is delivered by email with a “read receipt” requested, to help us better understand how best to reach our membership, especially those who work after hours and overnight.
Conclusions:
Creating a non-punitive peer level reporting environment where individuals can freely speak up will improve patient safety and the quality of care delivered, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.