Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Quality Excellence Council

Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center established the Quality Excellence Council at the beginning of 2013 to provide a forum for sharing the results of performance improvement reports among the organization's leadership. This provides transparency and promotes teamwork, communication between functional areas and teams, learning, and pride in the organization. The Quality Excellence Council reviews the organization's performance improvement activities regularly and requests corrective action when improvement efforts are not proceeding at an acceptable level or rate. Brookhaven's Quality Management Review provides management oversight and decision making for all organization quality activities.

Quality Excellence Council members include the executive team, each department head, nurse managers for each area of patient care, and any team leaders who report on performance improvement. Each month, 56 departments and patient care units report their progress toward attainment of established goals. The overarching goal of the Quality Excellence Council is to improve patient outcomes as indicated by the core measures, improve patient satisfaction as demonstrated through increased Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores, and improve efficiencies as reflected by the enhanced financial strength of the organization. Outcomes The Quality Excellence Council has:

• Increased transparency within the organization;
• Created uniformity in reporting on five defined categories
• Safety/harm, core measures, regulatory, unit-specific metrics, and HCAHPS
• Aligned activities with organization-wide goals
• Improved quality outcomes; and
• Improved the organization?s financial strength.

Lessons Learned
There was an opportunity for standardizing performance improvement reporting and for aligning the goals and performance in every area of the organization.Data presentations have evolved to focus on opportunities to celebrate and areas for improvement.

Contact Christopher S. Banks, vice president, development and external Relations (631) 654-7350 cbanks@bmhmc.org

This series is part of the Healthcare Association of New York State's Pinnacle Award for Quality and Patient Safety. HANYS members are committed to continuously improving quality, safety, and efficacy of care, and have made tremendous advances in redesigning the way care is delivered in their communities. The results have been dramatic and are hard-wired throughout the organization to sustain culture change.

HPOE is pleased to present the HANYS award as examples of work to achieve the Triple Aim—quality care, reduced costs and better health. For more information on how to share your stories, please email HPOE today.