The gas cylinder, the motorcycle and the village health team member: a proof-of-concept study for the use of the Microsystems Quality Improvement Approach to strengthen the routine immunization system in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: Although global efforts to support routine immunization (RI) system strengthening have resulted in higher immunization rates, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the proportion of children receiving recommended DPT3 vaccines has stagnated at 80% for the past 3 years (WHO Fact sheet-Immunization coverage 2014, WHO, 2014). Meeting the WHO goal of 90% national DPT3 coverage may require locally based strategies to support conventional approaches. The Africa Routine Immunization Systems Essentials-System Innovation (ARISE-SI) initiative is a proof-of-concept study to assess the application of the Microsystems Quality Improvement Approach for generating local solutions to strengthen RI systems and reach those unreached by current efforts in Masaka District, Uganda. METHODS: The ARISE-SI intervention had three components: health unit (HU) advance preparations, an action learning collaborative, and coaching of improvement teams. The intervention was informed and assessed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Data collection focused on changes and outcomes of improvement efforts among five HUs and one district-level team during the intervention (June 2011-February 2012) and five follow-up months. RESULTS: Workshops and team meetings had a 95% attendance rate. All teams gained RI system knowledge and implemented changes to address locally identified problems. Specific changes included: RI register implementation and expanded use, Child Health Card provision and monitoring, staff cross-training, staffing pattern changes, predictable outreach schedules, and health system leader--community leader meetings. Several RI system barriers prevalent across Masaka District (e.g., lack of backup HU gas cylinders, inadequate outreach transportation, and village health team underutilization) were successfully addressed. Three of five HUs significantly increased the vaccines administered. All improvements were sustained 5 months post-intervention. External evaluation validated the findings of high levels of participant engagement, empowerment to make change, and willingness to sustain improvements. CONCLUSIONS: The Microsystems Quality Improvement Approach is a comprehensive approach, grounded in systems thinking, and coupled with intensive coaching. It provides a robust framework for engaging teams in the development of unique local solutions that strengthen RI systems in resource poor settings. The sustained improvements in local RI systems from this study provide evidence that this approach may be an effective framework for enhancing the WHO's Reaching Every District (RED) immunization strategy.

Reducing contrast-induced acute kidney injury using a regional multicenter quality improvement intervention.

BACKGROUND: Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality after percutaneous coronary interventions and is a patient safety objective of the National Quality Forum. However, no formal quality improvement program to prevent CI-AKI has been conducted. Therefore, we sought to determine whether a 6-year regional multicenter quality improvement intervention could reduce CI-AKI after percutaneous coronary interventions. METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a prospective multicenter quality improvement study to prevent CI-AKI (serum creatinine increase ≥0.3 mg/dL within 48 hours or ≥50% during hospitalization) among 21 067 nonemergent patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions at 10 hospitals between 2007 and 2012. Six intervention hospitals participated in the quality improvement intervention. Two hospitals with significantly lower baseline rates of CI-AKI, which served as benchmark sites and were used to develop the intervention, and 2 hospitals not receiving the intervention were used as controls. Using time series analysis and multilevel poisson regression clustering to the hospital level, we calculated adjusted risk ratios for CI-AKI comparing the intervention period to baseline. Adjusted rates of CI-AKI were significantly reduced in hospitals receiving the intervention by 21% (risk ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval: 0.67-0.93; P=0.005) for all patients and by 28% in patients with baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min per 1.73 m(2) (risk ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval: 0.56-0.91; P=0.007). Benchmark hospitals had no significant changes in CI-AKI. Key qualitative system factors associated with improvement included multidisciplinary teams, limiting contrast volume, standardized fluid orders, intravenous fluid bolus, and patient education about oral hydration. CONCLUSIONS: Simple cost-effective quality improvement interventions can prevent ≤1 in 5 CI-AKI events in patients with undergoing nonemergent percutaneous coronary interventions.

The Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars program: a model for interprofessional education in quality and safety.

The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project is enhancing the emphasis on quality care and patient safety content in nursing schools. A partnership between QSEN and the Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars program resulted in a unique experiential, interdisciplinary fellowship for both nurses and physicians. This article introduces the Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars program and provides examples of learning activities and fellows' accomplishments. Interprofessional quality and safety education at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels is germane to improving the quality of health care.

Interprofessional education in action: the VA Quality Scholars fellowship program.

Although there are many examples of interprofessional education activities that focus on quality and safety, few include longitudinal experiences of teams working together over time. One exception is the Veterans Affairs Quality Scholars (VAQS) fellowship program. This article describes the integration of interprofessional education into the VAQS fellowship program, offers 2 examples of interprofessional projects conducted by the fellows, and discusses the VAQS program as a model for others to consider in developing interprofessional training programs in safety and quality improvement.

Impact of a hospital-wide hand hygiene initiative on healthcare-associated infections: results of an interrupted time series.

BACKGROUND: Evidence that hand hygiene (HH) reduces healthcare-associated infections has been available for almost two centuries. Yet HH compliance among healthcare professionals continues to be low, and most efforts to improve it have failed. OBJECTIVE: To improve healthcare workers' HH, and reduce healthcare-associated infections. DESIGN: 3-year interrupted time series with multiple sequential interventions and 1-year post-intervention follow-up. SETTING: Teaching hospital in rural New Hampshire. INTERVENTIONS: In five categories: (1) leadership/accountability; (2) measurement/feedback; (3) hand sanitiser availability; (4) education/training; and (5) marketing/communication. MEASUREMENT: Monthly changes in observed HH compliance (%) and rates of healthcare-associated infection (including Staphylococcus aureus infections, Clostridium difficile infections and bloodstream infections) per 1000 inpatient days. The subset of S aureus infections attributable to the operating room served as a tracer condition. We used statistical process control charts to identify significant changes. RESULTS: HH compliance increased significantly from 41% to 87% (p<0.01) during the initiative, and improved further to 91% (p<0.01) the following year. Nurses achieved higher HH compliance (93%) than physicians (78%). There was a significant, sustained decline in the healthcare-associated infection rate from 4.8 to 3.3 (p<0.01) per 1000 inpatient days. The rate of S aureus infections attributable to the operating room rose, while the rate of other S aureus infections fell. CONCLUSIONS: Our initiative was associated with a large and significant hospital-wide improvement in HH which was sustained through the following year and a significant, sustained reduction in the incidence of healthcare-associated infection. The observed increased incidence of the tracer condition supports the assertion that HH improvement contributed to infection reduction. Persistent variation in HH performance among different groups requires further study.

Building information for systematic improvement of the prevention of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers with statistical process control charts and regression.

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate complementary results of regression and statistical process control (SPC) chart analyses for hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs), and identify possible links between changes and opportunities for improvement between hospital microsystems and macrosystems. METHODS: Ordinary least squares and panel data regression of retrospective hospital billing data, and SPC charts of prospective patient records for a US tertiary-care facility (2004-2007). A prospective cohort of hospital inpatients at risk for HAPUs was the study population. RESULTS: There were 337 HAPU incidences hospital wide among 43 844 inpatients. A probit regression model predicted the correlation of age, gender and length of stay on HAPU incidence (pseudo R(2)=0.096). Panel data analysis determined that for each additional day in the hospital, there was a 0.28% increase in the likelihood of HAPU incidence. A p-chart of HAPU incidence showed a mean incidence rate of 1.17% remaining in statistical control. A t-chart showed the average time between events for the last 25 HAPUs was 13.25 days. There was one 57-day period between two incidences during the observation period. A p-chart addressing Braden scale assessments showed that 40.5% of all patients were risk stratified for HAPUs upon admission. CONCLUSION: SPC charts complement standard regression analysis. SPC amplifies patient outcomes at the microsystem level and is useful for guiding quality improvement. Macrosystems should monitor effective quality improvement initiatives in microsystems and aid the spread of successful initiatives to other microsystems, followed by system-wide analysis with regression. Although HAPU incidence in this study is below the national mean, there is still room to improve HAPU incidence in this hospital setting since 0% incidence is theoretically achievable. Further assessment of pressure ulcer incidence could illustrate improvement in the quality of care and prevent HAPUs.

Editorial: Broadening implementation of a preventive ethics approach.

We find the PE approach as part of the VA's IE program an excellent model from which all can learn. We have offered some additional issues for consideration on the basis of our own work and that of others. We hope that the combination of those ideas and the work of Foglia et al. will further advance the promotion and adoption of PE as a means to improve quality and minimize the occurrence of potentially harmful ethics conflicts.

Mastering improvement science skills in the new era of quality and safety: the Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars Program.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Healthcare professionals need a new skill set to ensure the success of quality improvement in healthcare. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) initiated the VA National Quality Scholars fellowship in 1998; its mission is to improve the quality of care, ensure safety, accelerate healthcare re-design, and advance the improvement science by educating the next generation of leaders in quality and safety. We describe the critical need for leadership in quality and safety and interprofessional education, illustrate the curriculum, provide lessons learned by fellows, summarize key lessons learned from the implementation of an interprofessional education approach, and present most recent accomplishments. METHODS: Narrative review. RESULTS: As of 2011, 106 program alumni are embedded in the health care delivery system across the United States. Since 2009, when nurse fellows joined the program, of the first nine graduating interdisciplinary fellows, the tailored curriculum has resulted in five advanced academic degrees, 42 projects, 29 teaching activities, 44 presentations, 36 publications, six grants funded or submitted, and two awards. CONCLUSIONS: The VA National Quality Scholars program continues to nurture and develop leaders for the new millennium focusing on interprofessional education. The nations' health care systems need strong interdisciplinary leaders in advanced quality improvement science who are dedicated to improving the overall quality of health and health care.

How do centres begin the process to prevent contrast-induced acute kidney injury: a report from a new regional collaborative.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates the variation in practice patterns associated with contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) and identifies clinical practices that have been associated with a reduction in CI-AKI. Background CI-AKI is recognised as a complication of invasive cardiovascular procedures and is associated with cardiovascular events, prolonged hospitalisation, end-stage renal disease, and all-cause mortality. Reducing the risk of CI-AKI is a patient safety objective set by the National Quality Forum. METHODS: This study prospectively collected quantitative and qualitative data from 10 centres, which participate in the Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group PCI Registry. Quantitative data were collected from the PCI Registry. Qualitative data were obtained through clinical team meetings to map care processes related to CI-AKI and focus groups to understand attitudes towards CI-AKI prophylaxis. Fixed and random effects modelling were conducted to test the differences across centres. RESULTS: Significant variation in rates of CI-AKI were found across 10 medical centres. Both fixed effects and mixed effects logistic regression demonstrated significant variability across centres, even after adjustment for baseline covariates (p<0.001 for both modelling approaches). Patterns were found in reported processes and clinical leadership that were attributable to centres with lower rates of CI-AKI. These included reducing nil by mouth (NPO) time to 4 h prior to case, and standardising volume administration protocols in combination with administering three to four high doses of N-acetylcysteine (1200 mg) for each patient. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that clinical leadership and institution-focused efforts to standardise preventive practices can help reduce the incidence of CI-AKI.

Preventing ethics conflicts and improving healthcare quality through system redesign.

BACKGROUND: Ethics and quality care are common drivers for healthcare organisations. Both are based on ethics principles that are the foundation for quality, and are synergistic with the Institute of Medicine's six quality aims. This paper describes the relationship between ethics principles and the goals of improving quality, safety and value. It demonstrates how healthcare staff, quality improvement professionals and ethics committee members could apply a quality improvement framework to address and prevent ethics issues. DISCUSSION: Recurring ethics issues can have a detrimental impact on both the quality of patient care and the culture of a healthcare organisation. Clinical staff and ethics committee members traditionally respond to ethics issues using a reactive approach. Despite nascent interest in a system-oriented preventive approach to ethics issues, there is limited practical advice for ethics committee members regarding how to specifically implement a system redesign strategy. Using an illustrative case study, the authors demonstrate how to apply a recognised quality improvement framework, which focuses on clinical microsystems, to manage and decrease ethics issues--therefore enhancing the organisation's quality of care. CONCLUSION: An important step in enhancing quality and ethics aims would be for the organisation's staff, including quality improvement professionals and ethics committee members, to collaborate in fostering system redesign. The authors' aim is not to examine in detail a specific quality improvement approach or method; rather, they wish to highlight the synergy they believe exists between quality improvement efforts and organisational ethics issues.

The Department of Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program: experience from 10 years of training quality scholars.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program (VAQS) was established in 1998 as a postgraduate medical education fellowship to train physicians in new methods of improving the quality and safety of health care for veterans and the nation. The VAQS curriculum is based on adult learning theory, with a national core curriculum of face-to-face components, technologically mediated distance learning components, and a unique local curriculum that draws from the strengths of regional resources. VAQS has established strong ties with other VA programs. Fellows' research and quality improvement projects are integrated with local and regional VA leaders' priorities, enhancing the relevance and visibility of the fellows' efforts and promoting recruitment of fellows to VA positions. VAQS has enrolled 98 fellows since 1999; 75 have completed the program and 24 are currently enrolled. Fellowship graduates have pursued a variety of career paths: 17% are continuing training (most in VA), 31% hold a VA faculty/staff position, 66% are academic faculty, and 80% conduct clinical or research work related to health care improvement. Graduates have held leadership positions in VA, Department of Defense, academic medicine, and public health agencies. Combining knowledge about the improvement of health care with adult learning strategies, distance learning technologies, face-to-face meetings, local mentorship, and experiential projects has been successful in improving care in VA and preparing physicians to participate in, study, and lead the improvement of health care quality and safety.

Good measurement for good improvement work.

PURPOSE: To provide guidance on using measurement to support the conduct of local quality improvement projects that will strengthen the evaluation of results and increase their potential for publication. TARGET GROUP: Individuals leading quality improvement efforts who wish to enhance their use of measurement. PROCEDURES TO PROMOTE GOOD MEASUREMENT: Eleven procedures are offered to promote intelligent measurement in quality improvement research that may become publishable: 1. Start with an important topic 2. Develop a clear aim statement 3. Turn the aim statement into key questions 4. Develop a theory about causes and effects, process changes and predictable sources of variation 5. Construct a research design and accompanying dummy data displays to answer your primary research questions 6. Develop and use operational definitions for each variable needed to make your dummy data displays 7. Design a data collection plan to gather information on each variable that will enable you to generate reliable, valid, and sensitive measures related to each research question 8. Pilot test the data collection plan, construct preliminary data displays, and revise your methods based on what you learn 9. Stay close to the data collection process as the data plan goes from idea to execution 10. Perform data analysis and display results in a way that answers your key questions. 11. Review and document the strengths and limitations of your measurement work and use this knowledge to guide intelligent interpretation of the observed results.

Exploring and embracing complexity in a distance-learning curriculum for physicians.

The recent pressures on clinical medicine such as the attention to medical error and the challenges of interdisciplinary care have also exerted pressure on health professions education. Educators must now gauge how to redesign education systems to adapt quickly to these disruptions. Sometimes disruptions can be self-inflicted, such as the VA National Quality Scholars Fellowship's decision to use interactive video (IV) as its primary medium for delivering the curriculum to its six sites around the nation. The authors describe how this disruption to their education system helped to fashion a learning environment that is adaptable. Along the journey from a classroom-based curriculum to an IV-based curriculum, the authors and others involved in the program learned the basic tenets of IV sessions, redefined the roles of the teachers and learners, and discovered an IV environment that functions as a complex adaptive learning system. This distance-learning curriculum can be a model for other health professions education, since it starts with simple rules, changes from within, has a tolerance for unpredictability, and continually moves forward and transforms itself despite tension.

What will it take to lead the continual improvement and innovation of health care in the twenty-first century?

We have witnessed the separation of the care for an individual patient and the concern for the health of a population. As we anticipate the twenty-first century, we see the wisdom of reconnecting these concerns. The knowledge and skills that we will address can help bridge the gap. First, we offer background to seminal work during the twentieth century that set the foundation for the improvement of health care. Next, we describe two major challenges for the continual improvement of health care that lie ahead. Third, we suggest an approach that leaders might use to address major challenges. Fourth, we offer a set of knowledge domains that outline the knowledge and skills that leaders of the improvement of health care will need. Finally, we provide two special issues that require additional mention and should not be overlooked. We believe that the combination of these ideas can provide a framework for knowledge building, action taking, and reflection needed by health care leaders in the coming century.

An approach to hospital quality improvement.

This study demonstrates many of the important features and challenges of improving hospital care. The unique confluence of software technology advances and increasingly complex clinical needs have made possible a redesign of the process by which discharge documentation is generated and disseminated. Using knowledge of the patients' experience of hospital care, a multidisciplinary team identified communication at the time of discharge as a key interaction point in the system of care. With this need in mind, the team identified an aim of improving the accuracy and timeliness of discharge data and their dissemination. The project leveraged existing information technology to help satisfy the general aims of recording only useful information only once and reducing wait times for information [14]. The ability to manage structured medication data and translate this information and specialized care instructions into patient-directed language facilitated the creation of a document that would ensure that patients knew what was expected of them after discharge. Implementation of a discharge form requires understanding all of the constituencies within a medical center. It was therefore necessary to put together a team that included representation from all the groups who interact with this discharge information. The authors proceeded with a small-scale test of change during which they identified training and education needs that would be useful as the new process expands to other areas of the hospital. The case illustrates how in one project a team needs to address all of the challenges to improving hospital quality. The discharge form clearly required understanding the patient's perspective. The approach taken by the team to change the discharge form also showed detailed understanding of the process of discharging a patient from the hospital. Many microsystems are involved in this process and the change that was implemented took into account the needs of each of those subsystems and drew on resources from the macroorganization (computer information system). Measurement was embedded into the system for monitoring. Organizational culture was addressed in that the organization itself was moving in the direction of greater use of electronic information for better patient care. Finally, multiple staff members needed to come together to accomplish this task, all working together as a team. They created an implementation plan that allowed them to do the work in staged, planned efforts, and to learn from each endeavor. Was the change an improvement? The team was able to implement successively a change in the discharge process as measured by utilization of the new form. Will the quality of care improve? Probably, although that remains to be seen. Improvements in care do not need to be sophisticated, they do not need to be elaborate, and they do not need to involve new devices or new technologies. Improvements start with thinking about the way work is done and reflecting on how the work might be done differently to meet and exceed patients' needs and expectations.

Use of the reliable change index to evaluate clinical significance in SF-36 outcomes.

The SF-36 Health Survey is the most widely used self-report measure of functional health. It is commonly used in both randomized controlled trials (RCT) and non-controlled evaluation of medical or other health services. However, determining a clinically significant change in SF-36 outcomes from pre-to-post-intervention, in contrast to statistically significant differences, is often not a focus of medical outcomes research. We propose use of the Reliable Change Index (RCI) in combination with SF-36 norms as one method for researchers, provider groups, and health care policy makers to determine clinically significant healthcare outcomes when the SF-36 is used as a primary measure. The RCI is a statistic that determines the magnitude of change score necessary of a given self-report measure to be considered statistically reliable. The RCI has been used to determine clinically significant change in mental health and behavioral medicine outcomes research, but is not widely applied to medical outcomes research. A usable table of RCIs for the SF-36 has been calculated and is presented. Instruction and a case illustration of how to use the RCI table is also provided. Finally, limitations and cautionary guidelines on using SF-36 norms and the RCI to determine clinically significant outcome are discussed.

A curriculum for training quality scholars to improve the health and health care of veterans and the community at large.

In 1998, the Veterans Health Administration invested in the creation of the Veterans Administration National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program (VAQS) to train physicians in new ways to improve the quality of health care. We describe the curriculum for this program and the lessons learned from our experience to date. The VAQS Fellowship program has developed a core improvement curriculum to train postresidency physicians in the scholarship, research, and teaching of the improvement of health care. The curriculum covers seven domains of knowledge related to improvement: health care as a process; variation and measurement; customer/beneficiary knowledge; leading, following, and making changes in health care; collaboration; social context and accountability; and developing new, locally useful knowledge. We combine specific knowledge about the improvement of health care with the use of adult learning strategies, interactive video, and development of learner competencies. Our program provides insights for medical education to better prepare physicians to participate in and lead the improvement of health care.