Quality & Patient Safety

Generating real value out of core measures data

Patient Safety Monitor, July 1, 2010

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Collecting core measures data is a part of everyday life at most healthcare facilities, affecting various types of staff members and CMS reimbursement. Assessing whether your facility is managing those data well and using the information contained in your core measures data is vital to improvement, according to Ken Rohde, senior consultant in patient safety and process at The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc., in Marblehead, MA. Rohde spoke on the topic at the 4th Annual Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals Conference in May.

“Data that do not validate or change our behaviors are not very useful,” said Rohde. “It’s important to consider control loops and to make sure your core measures are part of formal control loops.”

A closed control loop is one in which data and response are connected. For example, if your data collection surrounding the heart failure core measure is telling you that patients are not receiving appropriate discharge education on medications 100% of the time, your response should be to try to control that.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor.

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