Improving the availability of clinical history accompanying radiographic examinations in a large pediatric radiology department.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this quality improvement initiative was to improve the consistency with which radiologists are provided a complete clinical history when interpreting radiography examinations performed in the outpatient and emergency department settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinical history was considered complete if it contained three elements: nature of the symptoms, description of injury, or cause for clinical concern; duration of symptoms or time of injury; and focal site of pain or abnormality, if applicable. This was reduced to three elements: "what-when-where." A goal was established that 95% of the clinical histories should contain all three elements. To achieve this goal, technologists supplemented referring clinicians' history. The project was divided into four phases: launch, support, transition to sustainability, and maintenance. During the support phase, results of automated weekly audits automatically populated group-level performance reports. During the transition to the sustainability phase, audit results populated individual-level performance reports. During the maintenance phase, quarterly audit results were incorporated into technologists' employee performance goals. RESULTS: Before initiation of the project, 38% (76/200) of radiography examinations were accompanied by a complete clinical history. This increased to 92% (928/1006) by the end of the 15-week improvement phase. Performance was sustained at 96% (1168/1213) 7 months later [corrected]. CONCLUSION: By clearly defining expectations for an appropriate clinical history and establishing system and organizational mechanisms to facilitate verifiable compliance, we were able to successfully and sustainably improve the consistency with which radiography examinations were accompanied by a complete clinical history.

Practice policy and quality initiatives quality improvement and confirmation projects: facilitating rapid, measurable performance improvement.

As radiology departments continue to increase in size and complexity, the process of improving and maintaining excellent performance is becoming increasingly challenging. In response, a systematic process for efficiently implementing and sustaining measurable improvement in our radiology department has been developed, which targets focused aspects of individual performance that contribute to overall departmental quality. Projects designed to achieve such improvements have been called quality improvement and confirmation (QuIC) projects. The QuIC project process involves a project champion, medical expert, technical expert, quality improvement technologist specialist, and appropriate leaders, managers, and support personnel. The project champion conducts a preliminary investigation and organizes team members, who define the desired performance through consensus, establish data collection and analysis procedures, and prepare to launch the project. Once launched, the QuIC project process follows an execution period that is divided into four phases: (a) project launch phase, (b) support phase, (c) transition phase, and (d) maintenance phase. The first three phases focus on education, group-level feedback, and individual feedback, respectively. Weekly audits are performed to track performance improvement. Data collection, analysis, and dissemination processes are automated to the extent possible. To date, four such projects have been successfully conducted. The QuIC project concept is an attempt to apply the principles of process improvement to the process of process improvement by enabling any member of a radiology department to efficiently and reliably spearhead a quality improvement project. We consider this to be a work in progress and continue to refine the process with the goal of eventually being able to conduct many projects simultaneously.

Quality Improvement and Confirmation Projects: Facilitating Rapid, Measurable Performance Improvement.

As radiology departments continue to increase in size and complexity, the process of improving and maintaining excellent performance is becoming increasingly challenging. In response, a systematic process for efficiently implementing and sustaining measurable improvement in our radiology department has been developed, which targets focused aspects of individual performance that contribute to overall departmental quality. Projects designed to achieve such improvements have been called quality improvement and confirmation (QuIC) projects. The QuIC project process involves a project champion, medical expert, technical expert, quality improvement technologist specialist, and appropriate leaders, managers, and support personnel. The project champion conducts a preliminary investigation and organizes team members, who define the desired performance through consensus, establish data collection and analysis procedures, and prepare to launch the project. Once launched, the QuIC project process follows an execution period that is divided into four phases: (a) project launch phase, (b) support phase, (c) transition phase, and (d) maintenance phase. The first three phases focus on education, group-level feedback, and individual feedback, respectively. Weekly audits are performed to track performance improvement. Data collection, analysis, and dissemination processes are automated to the extent possible. To date, four such projects have been successfully conducted. The QuIC project concept is an attempt to apply the principles of process improvement to the process of process improvement by enabling any member of a radiology department to efficiently and reliably spearhead a quality improvement project. We consider this to be a work in progress and continue to refine the process with the goal of eventually being able to conduct many projects simultaneously. © RSNA, 2013.