4 Best Practices for Implementing an Effective Quality Improvement Program

An effective quality improvement program allows an ASC to track areas of improvement and form new policies and procedures to rectify those problem areas. ASCs should continuously build on past successes by tackling clinical, financial and operational weaknesses. John Dooley, MD, an anesthesiologist and administrator at Mississippi Valley Surgery Center in Davenport, Iowa, shares four ways an ASC can implement an effective and efficient quality improvement program.

1. Provide technical training to physicians and staff members. Launching a QI program starts with investing time and energy in collecting internal data as well as national standards and benchmarks. Dr. Dooley found laying the groundwork for a QI program required an investment in training physicians and staff on how to use newer technologies to gather and assemble information for its QI studies.

"It's time-intensive and resource-intensive in terms of trying to gather data in order to create meaningful comparisons to external benchmarks, and a lot of our clinical staff are not trained on how to use spreadsheets or statistical methods of inquiry," he says. "So we've had to create open sessions where we train our staff on how to use software, like opening and saving documents."

2. Invest in software that will streamline the work flow. In addition to training staff on use of various technologies for research and conducting QI studies, an ASC has to make sure the software and technologies are tailored to the needs of the facility.

"We bought various software for the staff to use on their desktops so they can produce meaningful information," Dr. Dooley says. "In some cases, we've had staff members save a document to a hard drive and then someone else accidentally deletes it. We've had to go to a new software system so that accidental deletion doesn't happen. Also, sometimes the data gets too large and bulky to manipulate, particularly patient surveys, so spreadsheets don't work. In that case, we've had to switch to a larger database like Microsoft Access."

3. Hire IT experts to be on staff. Hiring IT specialists can help an ASC implement more sophisticated health IT and information systems for its QI program. Particularly for Mississippi Valley, where staff members are not as knowledgeable on advanced use of computer systems, hiring IT experts aided staff members who faced technical problems.

"IT experts in general have a lot better knowledge of what the problems may be with a computer. A lot of our staff are older and didn't grow up in a time where everything was done on a computer, so having IT staff readily available to consult with technical problems has helped them get more familiar with software packages, such as email, presentation software and so on," Dr. Dooley says. "As a result of incorporating a QI program, our IT staff has grown from one person to three people."

4. Communicate with the governing board. Dr. Dooley says getting a QI program up and running has required a significant amount of time, money and resources. Involving the governing board in the process can help ease the frustrations an ASC may experience in revamping or launching a QI program. He says Mississippi Valley communicates openly with the governing board the challenges it faces as it rolls out a QI program.

"We try to go to the governing board so they are familiar with all the changes that are taking place in light of the new QI program," Dr. Dooley says. "It's important for them to know why the surgery center's profitability may be temporarily impaired because we are making these changes for the QI program or why we have to add more staff members in the form of IT experts."

Learn more about Mississippi Valley Surgery Center.

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