Quality Improvement Plan: Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is committed to providing vital healthcare services to both young people and those in need of quality parent care. The organization has qualified workforce and facilities in several places that can enable it attend to a number of patients. Besides, salaries of employees do not depend on the number of patients, making them work without being aimed at getting money for extra services Although the level of services in the healthcare organization is high, but the present QI plan is needed to establish a procedure and policy for quality maintenance and QI activities in Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic is interested in steadily evaluating and improving the quality of processes, services, and programs in order to develop the healthcare practices. In order for the organization to establish the culture of constant improvement, the efforts of QI should be targeted at the department and project or program levels.

Areas for Improvement

The QI plan for Mayo Clinic should develop strategies to train employees and improve their workplace, as well as ensure that its staff has the best-required skills. The organization should also conduct seminars and brainstorming among others activities in order to refresh the brains of the staff, implement the latest changes such as technological innovations and new medicines. Therefore, training and education of its workers is the first area for improvement that should be covered by the QI plan.

Mayo Clinic has its objectives and goals, which it should be met within a certain given period. As a result, a QI plan has been set to help in achieving the goals successfully. Each goal in the organization should be specified, achievable, measurable, and time-framed so that it can clearly determine whether the objectives have been met within a specific time. These goals may include training of administrative personnel and clinical staff. The progress in meeting the ones is a very crucial part of the evaluation of QI activities annually. Thus, the successful provision of patient care according to the goals of the organization is the next area for improvement.

Data Needed to Monitor Improvement

Performance measurement is used in monitoring organizational processes, programs, and systems. Data on the current performance as compared to the one in the previous years are necessary to monitor improvement. Another way of performance measurement can be theoretical test performance measures and benchmarks (Carey & Lloyd, 1995). Data on the quality of support services such as family counseling and clinical care assistance can also be analyzed.

In Mayo Clinic, the best data needed to monitor improvement are qualitative. There are several ways of collecting such data. They should ensure that all members of the staff are committed to their responsibilities and their performance should be above the average. The effectiveness of achieving goals in the organization also shows how competent the staff is, representing the level of workers’ qualification.

Three Data Collection Tools Used to Collect Performance Information

One of the methods is the use of interviews. It includes interviewing employees before they are employed in order to analyze whether they have the required qualifications and can exercise their skills. The staff on training should also be interviewed to assess whether they have attained the required skills. The interviewer can analyse the staff and obtain the best results from observation concerning the level of workers’ confidence in answering questions. Through conducting interviews, it is possible to detect any improvement in Mayo Clinic as a result of QI plans implementation. Interviewing is the best tool for collecting data because people can speak out, and the truth concerning what they are being asked is easy to achieve.

Interviewers collect performance information in most case, for instance, when the organization plans to conduct some interviews with patients who are coming to the clinics. In this case, patients will talk more about services they get, particularly, the level of satisfaction with the ones. Many organizations benefit from interviewing outsiders because they are sure that such persons answer questions about the establishment genuinely, giving actual data. Interviews have some advantages such as accurate and real data, low costs, and easiness to conduct.

Another tool that Mayo Clinic can use to collect data is questionnaires. This type of data collection is very essential for any successful quality improvement plan as it simplifies the work of the QI team in collecting consistent and accurate data, and generating reliable information.

A migrant clinician network usually offers continuous QI standardized chart audit forms, including medical chart reviews for providers, child healthcare evaluations, and WIC chart audit. Standardized questionnaires are also used while collecting data from providers or patients. They will help in interpreting questions and obtain accurate and complete data. All these tools of data collection foster the implementation of a QI plan.

Mayo Clinic can also collect data from medical records. It is done through checking old and new patient records. A positive characteristic of this form of data collection is that it does not require any questioning through interviews (McLaughlin & Kaluzny, 2006). It is because everything is usually written in the patient’s file. One advantage of this data collection method is that the information gathered is usually 100% accurate because it has been collected from patients, and it is not easy for them to lie about anything.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Data Collection Tools

The use of questionnaires unlike direct interviews does not allow for probing. In cases where the researcher fails to understand the information provided by the respondent, there is no opportunity for the former to dig deeper and inquire for more information. Besides, the use of questionnaires is an expensive method of collecting data as compared to direct interviews and observations. Another weakness of the use of questionnaires is a high probability of the lack of response. At times, questionnaires may not reach the intended person, resulting into no response. For example, only 55% of questionnaires are usually returned. Sometimes, they may be received by the intended person, but he/she may fail to respond as expected. However, it is easy to collect data through questionnaires as one does not need to travel or hire someone to collect data. Mayo Clinic can use this method when there is less work overload to get data from various clinics using fewer employees. This form of data collection saves a lot of time and money because it does not involve any external expenses (Rozenblum, 2013). It is not similar such data collection methods as interviews and a standardized data collection procedure because the former involve more than one person, while only one can conduct a questionnaire.

The QI plan in Mayo Clinic is at the beginning stage, and the staff is well-trained in many QI techniques and tools available nowadays. The department usually follows the PDCA sequence. Besides, the QI course will involve all members of the health department. Trainings will also engage presentations at course meetings for new employees, preliminary online classes for everyone, maintaining constant workforce trainings, and other necessary preparation activities. These areas should be the key concern to the QI health department to develop their performance and meet up the goals and objectives of the organization.

Tools Measuring and Displaying the QI Data Gathered with the Data Collection Tools

As far as the area of patient care is concerned, to get information on the QI level, the physician may use a histogram, which reviews data collected after specified time and presents the frequency in a bar graph. It exhibits large amounts of information in a visual form and displays comparative frequency of different data values. Pareto diagrams are also useful in showing relative importance of varying causes and allow for continues measures of progress.

Histograms use rectangles to display the frequency and subdivide information into intervals. The preference of the size of intervals may not match. It demonstrates underlying allocation of information and provides data to be used in forecasting the future performance.

Pareto diagrams are used to discover causes, which can quantify the comparative frequency of the time at which events occur.

Similarities between both tools provide vital information to be used in the healthcare facility and help to show patient healthcare results. The difference between them is that they display information in different ways. A histogram provides data to be used in forecasting the future performance, while a Pareto diagram focuses on the most important causes. These tools are helpful for health care organizations since they are used to display vital information concerning patient health and help to improve quality of patient care through corrections in the QI plan.

Conclusion

Quality improvement is important since it helps healthcare organizations to improve its performance in the required areas. It is achieved through collecting information on the latter and displaying it in different ways for improvement.

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