Tag Archives for " quality "

Quality Improvement Performance Indicators: Prioritizing Your Data

In a recent blog post, the Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality shed some light on an area of concern for many hospitals: the prioritization of data collection within their QAPI program. Hospitals are constantly working to monitor, report on and improve patient safety and quality of care, many of them collecting data on hundreds of performance indicators, but it’s impossible to monitor every single area.

This is where prioritization of data collection comes into play. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expects hospitals to prioritize high-risk, high-volume or problem-prone areas, but unfortunately, the agency is not specific on what areas qualify as such. However, the CIHQ suggests prioritizing performance indicators that are frequently cited for not being incorporated into a hospital’s QAPI program, such as:

Medication Use

• Sterile Compounding and IV Admixture
• Management of Hazardous Medications
• Medication Administration Practices for High-Risk Meds

Infection Prevention & Control

• Sterilization of Instruments & Supplies
• High-Level Disinfection of Instruments & Supplies
• MDRO and Isolation Practice
• Disinfection and Cleaning of Dialysis Machines & Equipment

Physical Environment

• Environmental Controls of Sensitive Areas (Temperature, Humidity, Air Balance)
• Maintenance and Operation of Critical Medical and Utilities Equipment
• Life Safety System Testing and Maintenance
• Implementation of Interim Life Safety Measures
• Protection Against Radiation Hazards

Food & Nutritional Services

• Food Service Preparation, Storage, and Cleanliness

Clinical Services

• Ordering Restraint & Seclusion
• Monitoring of Patients in Restraint & Seclusion
• Administration of Blood & Blood Products
• Protection of Patients at Risk of Self-Harm
• Administration of Sedation / Anesthesia
• Surgical and Invasive Procedures

While we support CMS and CIHQ in urging focus on certain performance indicators when a limited number can be tracked and addressed, hospitals should be very careful about reducing the number of tracked indicators due to time and resource constraints, because that could potentially have a damaging effect on the organization. The motivation to do so is often present and understandable, when hospitals are utilizing inefficient and labor-intensive performance tracking processes and tools. This is precisely the fundamental issue that Prista’s ActionCue CI application was designed to address.

ActionCue CI is your Fast Path to Insight™, monitoring all 19 performance indicators listed above and more, right out of the box. Its intuitive online dashboards provide critical QI/PI information to those who need it, when they need it. With gains in efficiency and productivity from using ActionCue CI, staff can carry out the quality, safety and improvement activities of the hospital, and cover and drive improvement on a larger number of measures, reducing the chances of being blindsided by a clinical performance issue or a derogatory survey finding.

In addition to comprehensive and efficient data collection, ActionCue helps hospitals take real actions to improve patient care, allowing staff to quickly investigate event causes and manage corrective actions through electronic event reporting. Many hospitals see significant increases in staff participation, communication and cooperation.

While it’s certainly important to take all necessary steps to avoid a CMS citation, ActionCue helps hospitals take quality and performance improvement a step further by truly creating a “Culture of Quality,” representing a collective and sustained commitment by organizational leaders to emphasize safety every single day.

Prista Adds Healthcare Leader Keith Thurgood to Board of Directors

AUSTIN, Texas, November 14, 2017 – Prista Corporation announces the addition of Keith Thurgood, Ph.D., to its Board of Directors, further demonstrating the company’s commitment to improving patient care quality and safety through strategic innovation and leadership.

“This was an easy decision to make, given the strong leadership team already in place and the momentum that Prista has in the marketplace as a technology leader,” said Thurgood.

Thurgood, a Clinical Professor of Healthcare Leadership and Management at the University of Texas at Dallas, brings a unique perspective on healthcare, operations management and leadership, having served in senior level leadership positions at both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, including the US Army where he served in the Secretary of the Army’s office of Business Transformation and retired as a 2-star General.

In addition to his responsibilities at UT Dallas, Dr. Thurgood is a faculty member and senior advisor for the Thayer Leader Development Group (West Point, New York), and is a managing partner with Pioneer Partnership Development Group.

Thurgood’s arrival coincides with an expansion and re-positioning of Prista’s ActionCue® Clinical Intelligence product to address the deepest, most strategic and most challenging needs of healthcare executives, such as those Keith teaches. Prista’s plan for its ActionCue platform as an innovative, integrated and balanced view of both clinical and financial performance in hospitals is to provide a better source of executive management insight than any other product on the market.

“Prista is uniquely positioned to drive sustainable quality, safety and performance improvements,” Thurgood said. “By leveraging the functionality of an integrated platform like ActionCue, patient safety events are reduced, quality improves, and the performance curve accelerates.”

The newest member of Prista’s Board of Directors, Thurgood joins board members David Conejo, CEO of Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services, and Dennis Cagan, a recognized authority on corporate governance. He is also welcomed by Prista’s founders Don Jarrell and Billie Anne Schoppman.

“Keith has incredible insights and standing regarding leadership in the healthcare industry,” said Jarrell, CEO of Prista. “He will be extremely valuable to Prista in both direction-setting and substance as we continue to bring key strategic innovation to the management of clinical and financial performance for all sectors of healthcare delivery.”

About Prista

Prista provides the ActionCue® Clinical Intelligence online application, an innovative platform integrating Quality Management, Event Reporting and Investigation, and Performance Improvement functionality. Beyond a dashboard or reporting tool, ActionCue provides a complete work environment for staff, management and executives to obtain immediate insights into all clinical issues and what is being done to improve them, and to own and drive the improvement-centered quality-safety process as never before.