New York Presbyterian Qi

¶ … Hospitals often use anonymous surveys in order to assess the progress of anyone. The best hospital survey came out and revealed in 2012, that Columbia Presbyterian hospital was among the best hospitals. "This means that of the 1,358 hospitals reviewed that have neurology and neurosurgery departments with at least 332 inpatient cases from the years 2010 to 2012, our group came up second" (Columbianeurosurgery.org, 2015). They used information from past performances like patient satisfaction, patients recovered in order to determine the list.

The people that performed the survey used a large sample of over 1,300 hospitals and ranked the top ones accordingly. In terms of improving performance measures, Columbia has utilized IT in order to improve overall quality within the hospital. A 2006 article mentions the use of technology to improve quality through data warehousing and automate clinical documentation (Gilad J. Kuperman, 2006).

This of course delivers higher levels of patient satisfaction of lower wait times to pull up information as well as gives staff working in the hospital, an easier time to navigate through health records and even employee records with the data effectively stored and transmitted. Technology often plays an integral role in any sort of improvement plan. This is purely based on speed of delivery of information.

Paper documents often take too long to process and retrieve and many hospitals have decided to remove paper documents and go for the technological upgrade. They reduce paper usage as well as provide the hospital with a reliable way to store and retrieve data. Referrals also are easier when they can be sent via fax or email to a doctor. In terms of the use of external and internal benchmarking, the hospital may perform studies in relation to promoting treatment that is more effective.

A heart medication study showed relation between adherence to taking the medication and antihypertensive drug effect (Moise, Bring, Schwartz, Shimbo & Kronish, 2014). The hospital also brings in some of the best doctors in the nation in order to provide high quality care. "At Columbia Presbyterian there is a surgeon who is one of the few in the country who performs delicate thyroid and parathyroid surgery in the neck under local anesthesia" (Rose, 2014, p. 70).

Columbia Presbyterian often has quality improvement effort status reports where they ask clinics and departments to report any improvements within their operations and processes. Often the instructions include entering of activities, attachment of pertinent information, plans since previous report, flowcharts and staff have to sign after previous entry. In fact, chart audits are often used to help determine accuracy of medical assessments like cardiac rhythm interpretations and determination of clinical consultations. Often QI's help enable identification of potential/actual problems within communication.

QI is also a critical component for success as it provides proper articulation and implementation of vision statements. Organizational cultures necessitate thorough incorporation and assessments in order to progress and meet standards. A 2013 system quality review for the NY Presbyterian Healthcare System wrote a special issue to enable higher performance in staff members. "NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) recognizes the importance of healthcare informatics and leadership supports projects that improve the delivery of care.

Thus, an oversight committee was created as the single repository for all electronic medical records (EMR) requests for changes" (NY Presbyterian, 2013, p. 175). NY Presbyterian recognizes the need to set goals and perform assessments on a continual basis. However, their set assessment protocol follows every three years rather than annually. Recommendations for improvement lie in continual annual assessment through data collection like surveys and supervisory visits. Assessment has already.