Dashboard for data analytics to promote standardization

A 13 hospital health system was challenged with standardizing measures, disparate databases, reporting methods, and poor communication among the hospitals to align with global health guidelines introduced by the Joint Commission and CMS. A method was needed to standardize key quality indicators so that hospital and system leadership could compare hospitals and monitor the effectiveness of performance improvement projects. New tools and analytics needed to be developed to effectively and efficiently monitor changes at an individual hospital level.

A web based dashboard that tracks 60 quality indicators was developed to promote standardization and provide quality indicators for stakeholders to make decisions. All data was standardized and displayed as run and control charts.

A streamlined process to integrate disparate data sources was designed to merge: hospital billing data, Premier data, clinical information, Press Ganey data, ambulatory, operational and HR data. The web based dashboard allows users to comment and explain variation. Thirty-six months of data are displayed for each hospital to allow for seasonal variation and change. Once 18 months of data have been entered, there is an automatic conversion from a run chart to a control chart to better identify special cause variation.

Data on 60 variables track the management of high-volume high-risk conditions, such as sepsis mortality, HF readmission, HF mortality, among others, are displayed monthly on control charts, run charts, and T charts. Clinical and administrative leadership can assess whether the trend is toward improvement or not.

The web based dashboard has transformed the identification of gaps in care and best practices through monitoring special cause variation. Clinicians and stakeholders are more knowledgeable about how using data and interpreting results. The data has facilitated higher level discussions.