Hospital quality improvement: strategies and lessons from U.S. hospitals

Hospital quality improvement: strategies and lessons from U.S. hospitals

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Contributor(s):
Silow-Carroll, Sharon
Alteras, Tanya.
Meyer, Jack A.
Commonwealth Fund.
Publication:
[New York, N.Y.] : Commonwealth Fund, [2007]
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Hospitals
Quality of Health Care
United States
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
This report focuses on the dynamics of hospital performance: how hospitals achieve and sustain improvements over time. Case studies of four hospitals that made substantial improvements reveal a pattern: 1) a trigger such as a crisis or new leader serves as a "wake-up call" that prompts the hospital to make 2) organizational and structural changes such as multidisciplinary teams, quality-related committees, and technology investments, which facilitate 3) a systematic problem-identification and problem-solving process, resulting in 4) new treatment protocols and practices, which in turn result in 5) improved outcomes. Success strengthens commitment to quality improvement and turns this temporal pattern into an ongoing cycle. The entire process reflects the establishment, growth, and reinforcement of a culture of quality. A companion report, Hospital Performance Improvement: Trends in Quality and Efficiency, presents results of a quantitative examination of the degree to which hospitals are improving (or deteriorating) in quality and efficiency over time.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
101316803 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101316803