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Setting expectations for quality improvement

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, April 15, 2008

With increasing expectations for healthcare organizations to participate in quality improvement (QI) projects, the role nurses play in these efforts is crucial. At the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) in Iowa City, IA—an ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® (MRP) recipient in 2004—all units are expected to publish an annual quality plan and complete a minimum of two unit-based QI projects a year, says Barbara Hannon, MSN, RN, CPHQ, MRP coordinator.

A few of UIHC’s QI projects have focused on reducing medication errors, discharge waiting times, blood administration errors, falls, and surgical site infections. Any unit or nurse manager who wants to conduct a QI project first applies to UIHC’s interdisciplinary department of clinical quality, safety, and performance improvement (CQSPI), which involves physicians, statisticians, risk managers, and staff from patient safety, infection control, quality management, and more. Once the CQSPI receives the QI proposal, the department assigns the unit or nurse manager an in-house quality coordinator to help design the project.

“All quality improvement or performance improvement projects at our hospital involve interdisciplinary participation because QI is all about fixing the processes and stopping the application of Band-Aids,” says Hannon.

Source: Barbara Hannon, MSN, RN, CPHQ, MRP coordinator at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

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