Why is it important to measure outcomes? What key criteria must be taken into account when deciding what outcomes you will measure (consider such things as relevance, rigor, feasibility, and usability)?

Week 4

Leadership at My Excellence Center became concerned when reimbursements began to shrink with the advent of pay-for-performance for Medicare patients. As they began to evaluate their performance metrics, they noted that there were large variations in outcomes across their patient care units. One safety outcome in particular, patient falls, seemed to show the greatest variability from month to month and across patient care units. Leaders determined to set improvement of falls as a priority for the organization.
A transdisciplinary team was formed to review evidence and make recommendations for practice change. The team reviewed evidence for acute care fall reduction programs, developed a protocol, and gained stakeholder support for its implementation. The team met to determine what outcomes should be measured.

1. a. Why is it important to measure outcomes?
b. What key criteria must be taken into account when deciding what outcomes you will measure (consider such things as relevance, rigor, feasibility, and usability)?

2. a. In this scenario, what outcomes might the team measure?
b. Thinking about the sources of data within healthcare organizations, where might the team find data to address the outcomes identified?

Simultaneously, leadership put a dashboard up to track progress and make data readily available to both unit leadership and staff to increase awareness and allow them to monitor data around the unit’s patient fall rates. Additionally, the dashboard allowed nurses to monitor potential relationships among patient falls, changes in staffing, volatility of admissions, discharges, transfers, and case mix. Nurse managers knew the literature suggested that there is a relationship between falls and staffing levels but were unsure how staffing levels were affecting their own units. With the implementation of the new dashboards on their units, they were able to evaluate factors surrounding times of patient falls in order to look for patterns. They became excited about their ability to monitor progress based on their own data.

3. Identify and explain three different mechanisms to report data to stakeholders in a meaningful, understandable way?