October 16–22 is National Healthcare Quality Week, started by the National Association for Healthcare Quality to increase awareness of healthcare quality programs and to highlight the work of healthcare quality professionals and their influence on improved patient care outcomes.
This event deserves your attention because the quality of healthcare affects every one of us, and so does the cost of that care. Whether it's as a patient, a quality practitioner, or a health care provider, we all have a stake in learning what people are doing to improve the quality of care and, at the same time, working to make it more efficient and ultimately affordable.
Kudos to not only those in the field of healthcare quality, but all who work in healthcare to improve the experience of patients everywhere (thank you!).
Q&As with Healthcare Quality ProfessionalsAs the corporate director of process excellence at Citrus Valley Health Partners, Denise Ronquillo plays a key role in improving quality and ensuring that patients receive excellent and safe care. Over the past two years, she and her colleagues have achieved substantial successes while overcoming resistance and skepticism, and are beginning to see a new culture of quality emerge in their organization.
This Isn’t a Game We’re Playing
Quality improvement is something healthcare providers have to do, says Dr. Sandy Fogel, surgical quality officer at Carilion Clinic.
Healthcare Quality: Making a Difference with Data
How can statistics and data analysis help improve outcomes in healthcare? William H. Woodall, professor of statistics at Virginia Tech, has been focused on that question for over ten years.
Blog Posts about Quality Improvement in Health CareA Six Sigma Healthcare Project
Follow along with a series of blog posts on the application of binary logistic regression in a healthcare Six Sigma project, which had a goal of attracting and retaining more patients in a hospital's cardiac rehabilitation program.
Monitoring Rare Events with G and T Charts
These charts make it easy to assess the stability of processes that involve rare events and have low defect rates.
Learn several tips for exploring and visualizing your healthcare data in a way that will prepare you for a formal analysis.
Case Studies about Health Care Quality Improvement ProjectsDuring an assessment of its angioplasty process for patients suffering from heart attacks, Cathay General Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan used Minitab to analyze data to help them introduce new treatment options that led to a decrease in the patients’ hospital stay and an increased savings in medical resources.
Riverview Hospital Association
The Riverview Hospital Association Lean Six Sigma team performed data analysis to identify patient groups who were scoring lower on patient satisfaction survey questions. This allowed the team to target process improvement efforts to specific patient populations.
Franciscan Children’s Hospital
With the help of Lean Six Sigma and Minitab software, Franciscan Hospital for Children was able to analyze information about its processes and make data-driven decisions that increased dental operating room efficiency and enabled doctors to see more kids.
For more on how data analysis and Minitab can be used in healthcare, visit www.minitab.com/healthcare.