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Ask the expert: How can our program use hospitalist report cards for quarterly reports?

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, April 26, 2011

A hospitalist service might incorporate the hospitalist report card into quarterly reports generated for senior physician leadership and therefore might want to prioritize performance measures based on the overall strategic goals of the larger organization. For example, if the hospital has a very high census, earlier discharge times and decreased average length of stay are critical to the efficiency and bottom line of the hospital and to avoiding emergency room diversion.

The hospitalist report card does not have to be all–inclusive, but rather, it should reflect what is important to the service and the institution. The key is to target your effort, to perform better on two to three measures you choose so you can demonstrate an improvement from quarter to quarter relative to other services. Include information already being collected by the hospital such as average length of stay, hospital readmission rate within 14 days, number of ICU transfers, and patient satisfaction data. Always indicate the source of data, which you obtain, preferably, from others so that you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

Remember to include a report card data commentary section. This section is designed to:

• Highlight the accomplishments of the service
• Identify opportunities for improvement
• Explain limitation of the data
• Identify steps to be taken to make the data more actionable

For example, if the report card shows an increase in readmission rate and a decrease in average length of stay compared to a previous quarter, it is worthwhile to include possible explanations for this finding (i.e., discharging patients too soon, inadequate follow-up arranged by the discharging hospitalist, inability to book timely follow-ups due to lack of PCP availability, etc.) and the steps to be taken to resolve the problem.

The above excerpt is adapted from Tools and Strategies for an Effective Hospitalist Program, published by HCPro, Inc.

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