Commonwealth Fund Highlights Accomplishments of Reid Hospital

Last week the Commonwealth Fund highlighted the SCIP achievements of Reid Hospital (Richmond, IN) by publishing a case study on both the Commonwealth Fund's website
as well as their http://www.whynotthebest.org/ website.

The case study can be download here: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Case%20Study/2009/Nov/1338_Edwards_Reid_Hospital_case_study.pdf

The following is the summary section of the case study with sections of interest in red.

Reid Hospital and Health Care Services is a high performer on process-of-care, or “core” measures. The measures, developed by the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), relate to achievement of recommended care in four clinical areas: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care. This case study focuses on Reid’s achievement in providing recommended care to surgical patients in order to reduce the risk of a hospital-acquired infection.

Quality of care has been high on Reid’s agenda since the late 1990s, when the hospital began using a report card to track health care processes and outcomes. In 2004, the multidisciplinary Surgical Care Improvement Project Quality Action Team was formed, which hospital leaders’ credit with helping to achieve high performance on the surgical measures. The team is supported by:

• a strong board, administrators, and clinical leaders;
• a clinical information system that aligns physicians’ orders with hospital standards, and alerts nurses about the timing of critical care;
• physician and nurse champions;
• performance data analysis and feedback; and
• a "just do it" approach to quality improvement.