Quality Improvement in Anesthesiology — Leveraging Data and Analytics to Optimize Outcomes

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Key points

  • Quality improvement is at the heart of practice of anesthesiology.

  • Objective data are critical for any quality improvement initiative; when possible, a combination of process, outcome, and balancing metrics should be evaluated to gauge the value of an intervention.

  • Quality improvement is an ongoing process; iterative reevaluation of data is required to maintain interventions, ensure continued effectiveness, and continually improve.

  • Dashboards can facilitate rapid analysis of data and drive

Measuring data in quality improvement: defining metrics

A critical aspect of any quality improvement effort is to determine metrics by which success is measured. It is important to identify appropriate metrics to know if an implemented change represents an improvement over existing processes. Three types of metrics are used in quality improvement.

Approaching quality improvement: different frameworks for success

The basic steps of any quality improvement initiative are to

  • 1.

    Identify a process with opportunity for improvement

  • 2.

    Analyze the problem in a systematic way

  • 3.

    Devise a proposed solution

  • 4.

    Iteratively reassess performance to determine if the change is successful

That said, there are a variety of methodological approaches to quality improvement initiatives, each of which uses different strategies to achieve the desired result. There is no single correct approach to quality improvement. Three commonly used

Monitoring quality: using data for ongoing quality improvement efforts

Data are critical when designing quality improvement initiatives, but the design and implementation of impactful interventions are only the first hurdle. Ongoing monitoring is imperative to ensure continued compliance and continued success. There are a variety of ways to display and utilize data when tracking ongoing quality measures.

Audit and feedback: using data to drive positive change

Audit and feedback entail providing a summary of clinical performance over a specified period of time.41 Anesthesiologists, as a group, tend to be both data-driven and competitive. Providing feedback on performance, particularly with objective data, can be highly motivating when used in a thoughtful way. Sharing group performance against national benchmarks, for example, may help engage clinicians as stakeholders in quality improvement efforts. Providing individualized feedback against either

Summary

Continuous quality improvement should be the goal for every individual anesthesiologist and group. When undertaking quality improvement initiatives, it is essential to appropriately use data and metrics to understand processes, analyze problems, set goals, and measure change. Data can be used to inform individual providers about performance over time or to compare among providers or groups. Providing clinicians with individualized data can help to drive positive change.

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