Description

Select a diagnostic or procedural topic relevant to patient care that would be suitable for a quality assessment and improvement project.

1. Define the purpose or focus of the assessment process. (Ask: What are we trying to accomplish?)

2. Identify/develop at least four key indicators or parameters (performance measures) for the selected topic that provide data to support the purpose or focus of the assessment process. (Ask: What will tell us that a change is an improvement?) Use resources on this topic to help decide which indicators to use. Indicators may include, but are not limited to:

Admission criteria/suggested population

Continued-stay review criteria

History of illness

Lab values

Symptomatology/indications for the disease or procedure

Vital signs

Medications

Ongoing monitoring

Length of stay

Type of treatment

Complications/management of care

Comorbidities

Management (for example, of therapy or education)

Discharge planning

Status

3. Develop a data collection tool that incorporates the four indicators you developed in step 2. This tool might be a spreadsheet, database, or table.

4. Determine the appropriate source for data collection on your topic (ie, patient chart, infection control data, lab data, etc). Make up data for the data collection.

5. Use the data collection tools to summarize data and create a data summary sheet.

6. Use an analysis tool such as a fishbone diagram or run chart to analyze the data collected.

7. Identify the team of healthcare professionals who would work on this assessment. Include healthcare professionals from a variety of support areas who could add input and contribute to the process as well as benefit from the results.

8. Write a narrative summary of the study findings. The narrative should discuss the purpose of the assessment study, the data analysis, and the changes that would result in an improvement.

9. Find an article that addresses your topic and use it as a resource to determine whether your study reflected data collected in actual studies. Attach a copy of the article to the summary.

10. Identify and summarize all resources used to complete the project in a bibliography using the APA format. Submit the bibliography with the narrative and article. A minimum of three resources should be used. They may include personal contact with a health professional who could assist in defining the assessment process. Other resources could include manuals of indicators, articles, practice guidelines, tools, or graphic resources.