Case Scenario:
Mercy Hospital is a 500-bed acute care hospital with an electronic health record (EHR) system. In the past, the hospital won awards for its quality of care, patient satisfaction, low readmission rates, and low hospital-acquired infection rates. However, in the past six months, hospital-acquired infection rates have surged above the hospital's usual rate of less than 2%. In fact, the hospital-acquired infection rate soared to 7% in the past month. The administrators at Mercy Hospital are perplexed about the infection rate and would like you, the Quality Improvement Manager, to begin a quality improvement initiative to lower the infection rates.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Bob Bryant, would like to know your thoughts on proceeding with the quality initiative. After reviewing the data on the infection rates, you begin to think of some ideas on how to undertake the quality initiative that include: the use of information management systems, organizational performance-improvement initiatives, and methods of data collection.
Instructions:
In an email to Dr. Bob Bryant that:
- Advocates for the use of Mercy Hospital's EHR system and patient care technologies in promoting healthcare quality.
- Assesses the need for an organization-wide performance improvement initiative to lower the infection rates.
- Determines methods to use in collecting and interpreting data to make organizational decisions and improve the quality of care.