Healthcare quality improvement's big enemies: Data capture, staffing

While many healthcare organizations have teams in place to modernize clinical practice across the enterprise, plenty still struggle to capture the right data and provide optimal staffing to produce ongoing quality improvement, a new survey suggests. In the first-ever survey on "clinical transformation" from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society , 86% of 175 respondents--mostly representing hospitals--said their organizations had established, or were in the process of establishing, a team for clinical transformation. Just 12% cited organizational commitment as a barrier to reporting on quality measures. HIMSS and survey sponsor McKesson defined clinical transformation as continuous assessment and improvement of care delivery at all levels of a healthcare system. "It occurs when an organization rejects existing practice patterns that deliver inefficient or less effective results and embraces a common goal of patient safety, clinical outcomes, and quality care through process redesign and IT implementation. By effectively blending people, processes, and technology, clinical transformation occurs across facilities, departments, and clinical fields of expertise," the survey report explained.