Integrating quality improvement into healthcare operations: A system's approach

Abstract

A palpable pulse on organizational culture is imperative for allowing senior leadership to understand the current state and use this as a starting point to measure the gap between the current state and where the organization should be to meet strategic goals related to quality and safety. Knowledge gleaned from causal analysis and coding of safety events provides the organization with that information. Our organization was unknowingly making decisions on a small quantity of coded and classified events, which led to mistakes on our journey to becoming a high-reliability organization.

To remedy this, the Quality and Safety Team improved the user interface of the event reporting system and created standard work for all frontline staff, physicians, area managers and senior leaders. After several interventions, we reduced the time between reported events and documented resolution by 15.28% and increased the quantity of coded and classified safety events tenfold. These changes improved our organization's ability to make better informed decisions and plot a more precise course on the journey to becoming a high-reliability organization.