Driving Meaningful Physician Engagement with Clinical Data

Introduction

When Grace Parrish, RN, BSN, joined Tampa General Hospital (TGH), she aimed to develop data-driven quality initiatives to maintain the 1,041-bed institute’s reputation for top-rated patient care. Since performing Florida’s first successful human heart transplant in 1985, TGH’s vascular and cardiology offerings have consistently been rated among the top 50 in the country.

To further their commitment to quality, the TGH team conducted an initial analysis of their STS registry data. This exercise revealed some opportunities for improvement in several key STS performance measures.

As part of this process, Parrish and the TGH staff realized that if physicians engaged with their data on a deeper level, it could create an even stronger connection between the quality team and physicians―driving even greater performance measure improvement. However, quality specialists at TGH found that without confidence in the data’s integrity, physicians were less likely to engage.

To validate their existing data integrity and push the organization into a new frontier of success, the TGH team engaged Q-Centrix’s experts and proprietary software to create a multipronged, solutions-driven approach to overcome organizational challenges and achieve its goals.

Encourage physicians to meaningfully engage with data to guide clinical care decisions and improve patient care quality
- Increase collaboration between quality specialists and physicians
- Use unbiased and collaborative benchmarking
- Achieve an enterprise view of data
  - Examine month-over-month metrics trends, rather than daily snapshots
Foster proactive data reporting
- Give physicians regular access to case data and reports independently of quality managers
- Adjust benchmarks and best practices with more frequent physician and quality manager reporting
Improve STS performance measures
- Data-informed patient care and clinical decisions

Implemented IHI’s recommendation for setting metrics, reviewing data, and implementing opportunities for positive change
- A multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, and quality directors reviewed data, discussed opportunities for improvement, and set benchmarks accordingly
- Teams of both quality specialists and physicians held regular meetings to discuss results and report upward to set new quality initiatives and benchmarks
- Q-Centrix validated pre-existing data integrity, presented findings to physicians, and gained their trust in the data
  - Team members had more time to implement quality improvement initiatives rather than engaging in time-consuming data validation

Changing culture and perceptions around data integrity does not occur overnight. In the case of Tampa General Hospital, both internal collaboration and external data validation improved the data management process. Through Q-Centrix’s user-friendly software, data was made more accessible and presented on a centralized platform, allowing for quality improvements to be implemented across teams more easily. Additionally, a dedicated physician champion kept the team engaged throughout the process.

Today, TGH continues to see success for its commitment to quality and was recently ranked as a 2022-2023 U.S. News Best Hospitals high-performing hospital for Cardiology & Heart Surgery. Moreover, TGH regularly inspires physician-level engagement across all departments by elevating their adherence to clinical data management best practices. Health care organizations of any size can do the same to unlock the value of their data and become a top provider for their patients.

Driving meaningful physician engagement with clinical data

How Tampa General Hospital created a multi-pronged, solutions-driven approach to achieve its goals

Introduction

Goals

Since performing Florida’s first successful human heart transplant in 1985, Tampa General Hospital’s vascular and cardiology offerings have consistently been rated among the top 50 in the country.

Solutions

Engaged with best practices from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)’s model

Selected an outcome-driven, physician-level data champion, who engaged the team

Instituted an open trial and error process

Used Universal Registry Solutions (URS) to provide a user-friendly, secure, and enterprise view of clinical data

Outcomes

Through Q-Centrix’s user-friendly software, data was made more accessible and presented on a centralized platform, allowing for quality improvements to be implemented across teams more easily.

Conclusion