4 Reasons Why Quality Improvement Is Important in Healthcare

Hospitals worldwide struggle with long wait times and medical errors. The results? Patients suffer needlessly, and costs soar. Providers also burn out while working inefficiently. Not only that, they need a solution that helps them save lives and restore the trust of the people they treat.

Quality initiatives in hospitals are essential now more than ever. Below, we explore some of the crucial reasons why they should be your focus and how they can benefit your organization.

» Start your hospital's quality initiative with a knowledge management system

1. Reduces Redundancy

Redundant tasks can quickly tire out providers. Dr. Berwick—a former CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement—saw how systemic issues cause more medical errors than a clinician's lack of care. In a paper titled To Err is Human, he emphasizes the need for an efficient and safe workplace. [1,2]

But what are these redundancies in today's healthcare workplace? Duplicate files, overlapping roles, and unused equipment are some of the main ones—and they're just the tip of the iceberg.

There are many ways to tackle this issue, like standardizing processes and procedures and simplifying workflows. These methods are made easier by using a dedicated knowledge management platform built to address redundancies—a platform like C8 Health.

The software stores your approved and vetted clinical best practices for quick access at the right point of care. The result? Improved hospital efficiency. You can even get data-driven insights on how the staff uses your resources via a customized dashboard that tracks your knowledge management KPIs.

2. Boosts Safety

Staff from every point of care can be crucial for improving the quality of safety measures. Frontline staff, middle management, and senior leadership each have a unique point of view that helps find issues. For example, nurses know the daily ward routines the best. They can offer input on the best way to improve hand hygiene protocols and include them in the workflow.

Quality initiatives in hospitals that use failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) also have a better chance of boosting safety. This method checks each area and finds risks while predicting how severe they may become. This helps you rank, prioritize, and work on them one by one.

» Explore the effects of health information technology on patient safety

3. Improves Care Delivery

Quality improvement in any area of healthcare is easier with the latest technology, including AI tools. Proper software can lead to better patient outcomes and drive efficient care delivery—all while lowering costs. But you need a detailed approach to make it work. This is where a plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle can help.

Suppose you want to reduce medication errors by scanning barcodes. In that case, you'd plan the change, test it on a small scale, study the results, and refine the process based on the findings.

The approach has its challenges. For the best results, everyone needs to be on board. You should also have enough data to analyze and avoid changing anything until you have thoroughly researched it.

» Explore how efficient knowledge management boosts patient care

4. Prevents Hospital Readmissions

Reducing readmissions was the focus at the hospital where I worked. After looking at the data, we found that most repeat patients had congestive heart failure. We needed a way to find the causes, and that's where root cause analysis (RCA) proved helpful.

After a thorough vetting, we found that the source of the readmissions was poor teamwork between inpatient and outpatient teams. To solve the problem, we addressed one unit at a time.

We created a new communication strategy and used the PDSA approach to put it to use. The changes took almost a year, but we reduced hospital readmissions by 20%, and the effort snowballed into better patient outcomes and satisfaction.

» Discover strategies for improving patient satisfaction scores

Areas in Hospitals That Benefit From Quality Initiatives

• Safety is crucial in healthcare because it affects various aspects of patient care. Improving quality in this area has long-term benefits, such as reduced readmissions and better patient outcomes.
• If fewer patients return for more treatment, hospitals and insurance companies will also save money. Optimized medication use and cutting-edge technology help achieve the best outcomes at a reasonable price.

» Find out how knowledge management leads to cost savings

Quality Improvement: A Healthcare Imperative

Quality improvement in healthcare means working together to find better ways to help patients. This involves carefully studying data, working as a team, and staying ahead of the competition.

To succeed, we need to keep trying new things, use technology to make smart choices, and always put patients first. By doing this, we can not only improve patient satisfaction but also build a more robust healthcare system for everyone.

» Be at the forefront of quality improvement in healthcare by using a knowledge management system