How are teams using data to improve?

Using data to improve can be as simple as starting a conversation.  Those conversations can lead to all kinds of ways to improve.  Maybe the improvements are first about getting better access to your data or cleaning up your EMR data.  All these improvements eventually lead to better care. Some of the ways teams are doing this are listed below.  Your team may already have done these things a while ago – or maybe your team is trying them out now.  Either way, you know who you are but probably nobody else does.  So please consider the following ways to use data to improve and please consider sharing your story so others can learn from and with you.

1. Talking about data

• Bringing D2D to the Board to set a focus for QI work for the next year.
• Setting up a QI committee to keep track of progress on indicators in your QIP or D2D.
• Posting your team’s (or maybe individual doctor’s) performance compared to peers in the lunch room.
• Reaching out to peers with better performance on indicators of interest in D2D.
• Deciding what indicators your team can track to know if their programs are making a difference to patients.

2. Getting better access to data

• Enrolling your team in EMRALD  or CPCSSN for better access to EMR data to improve performance.
• Signing up physicians for their own profile reports (eg from HQO portal or CCO SAR) to drill down into D2D performance.
• Running the COPD query developed by QIDSS to get started on a COPD registry.
• Printing cards for patients to hand in to you when they get their flu shot somewhere else (so you can update their EMR record).

3. Improving data quality

• Offering a pizza party to the physician with the highest % of patients with complete data for smoking status.
• Moving to monthly or quarterly patient experience surveys instead of annual so you can better track the impact of changes you are making.
• Trying out tablets or email or phone calls to make it easier to patient experience surveys more often.
• Hiring a student to clean up EMR data about cancer screening.
• Reconciling your rostered patient list to the MOHLTC list and maybe even creating space to enrol more patients.
• Adding questions to your patient experience survey to make it easier for you to compare to your peers.