At the 10th Annual Orthopedic, Spine and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference in Chicago on June 14, 2012, Mary Sturm, senior vice president of clinical operations at Surgical Management Professionals, discussed nine great ideas for quality improvement studies.
"Sometimes it's easy to get into a rut and measure and study the same quality issues over and over," Ms. Sturm said. "Sometimes it's okay just to move onto other projects."
Conduct employee satisfaction surveys. The overage turnover cost for one RN is $24,000-44,000. These turnover dollars could affect the surgery center's long-term success. To help prevent this, Ms. Sturm says there is a good economic case to measure and improve employee satisfaction. In addition, published research suggests satisfied employees also influence patient satisfaction.
Perform case costing analysis. ASCs should be able to measure that each procedure breaks even or produces marginal profits. If ASCs are doing procedures that are not at least minimally covering expenses, ASCs should think about letting that procedure go.
Perform an instrument loss/repair analysis. Instrument repair/loss can be an overlooked but significant expense. This type of analyses may help identify opportunities for staff training or process changes for instrumentation.
Conduct physician satisfaction surveys. Ms. Sturm says there are great solutions for third-party physician satisfaction surveys. Ultimately, satisfied physicians will also increase procedure volumes and the center's profitability.
Other great quality improvement projects include:
• Evaluate "eco friendly" impact of the ASC.
• Audit inventory processes.
• Measure patient registration times.
• Assess your medication formulary.
• Review accuracy of procedure coding.
"Sometimes it's easy to get into a rut and measure and study the same quality issues over and over," Ms. Sturm said. "Sometimes it's okay just to move onto other projects."
Conduct employee satisfaction surveys. The overage turnover cost for one RN is $24,000-44,000. These turnover dollars could affect the surgery center's long-term success. To help prevent this, Ms. Sturm says there is a good economic case to measure and improve employee satisfaction. In addition, published research suggests satisfied employees also influence patient satisfaction.
Perform case costing analysis. ASCs should be able to measure that each procedure breaks even or produces marginal profits. If ASCs are doing procedures that are not at least minimally covering expenses, ASCs should think about letting that procedure go.
Perform an instrument loss/repair analysis. Instrument repair/loss can be an overlooked but significant expense. This type of analyses may help identify opportunities for staff training or process changes for instrumentation.
Conduct physician satisfaction surveys. Ms. Sturm says there are great solutions for third-party physician satisfaction surveys. Ultimately, satisfied physicians will also increase procedure volumes and the center's profitability.
Other great quality improvement projects include:
• Evaluate "eco friendly" impact of the ASC.
• Audit inventory processes.
• Measure patient registration times.
• Assess your medication formulary.
• Review accuracy of procedure coding.
