Dr. Ferrance at one time chaired his hospital’s quality improvement committee; the panel now reports to him. He believes hospitalists are fortunate that “we became a specialty after evidence-based medicine really came to the forefront. We are fortunate to have the backing of much hard data.”
Still, he acknowledges the difficulty of establishing proof that an action affects patient outcome. “It’s hard, but what we can do is look at what might help result in things like decreased morbidity, length of stays and complications, and a faster return to a patient’s normal functions. Then we might see influence on patient outcomes.”
Beyond Core Measures
Richard Rohr, MD, vice president for medical affairs at Cortland Regional Medical Center in New York, works extensively on quality improvements. He urges hospitalists and institutions to go beyond required measures.
“A lot of what we’re doing now is imposed by government, insurers or the Joint Commission,” says Dr. Rohr. “In day-to-day work, we should look for areas to go beyond what is required.”
He believes hospitalists should look at specific issues underlying the Johns Hopkins framework’s three core questions.
For example, within the first core question “Is the measure important?” he suggests hospitalists consider what their facility’s priorities are. “There are thousands of things that could address safety,” he says. “Hospitalists should look at how a measure fits in to their organization’s priorities. At an institution known for cardiac care, look at safety measures in cardiology.”
He also suggests looking at a facility’s potential problem areas to help determine if a measure is important. “I worked at a facility that had a rule that Coumadin had to be ordered one day at a time,” says Dr. Rohr. “Since patient use of the medication was closely monitored, there were very few patients with serious bleeding.”
The point, he says, is that hospitalists should “make sure the safety process they’re interested in truly addresses a true problem and is not already in place. Try to add something of value.”
Hospitalists are in a good position to do this, he says, because of their day-to-day perspective on patients. “Hospitalists should start by looking at what their organization has addressed and what’s causing patient problems day to day and then set priorities,” he advises.
Institutional Support
—Richard Rohr, MD, vice president for medical affairs at Cortland Regional Medical Center, Cortland, N.Y.
Of critical importance also, Dr. Rohr says, is to see what their organization can support before deciding what safety measure to explore.
“Is it feasible to collect data to use this measure?” he asks. “That’s partly dependent on where your facility is in using electronic medical records. Does the benefit of researching and implementing outweigh the cost? You may have to spend some staff time to decide what is worthwhile.”
The last task may be easier for hospitalists working at more academic hospitals, he says, which is also an important part of trying to answer the Johns Hopkins framework’s second question: “Is the measure valid?”
It’s often hard to answer that one, Dr. Rohr acknowledges. “Research has at times shown that a process may show statistically significant improvement, but it does not show up clinically,” he says. “Aspirin and beta-blockers for heart patients, for example, has a statistically significant difference—but it is small.”
Most hospitalists try to see patients and do this kind of work on the side, he concedes: “They should do some research, but value what they see when treating patients. You have a good sense of what has helped patients.”