Data-Driven OrganizationsResources

Health care organizations rely on data to:

• Define value for their products.
• Improve market share.
• Maintain efficient use of resources.
• Ensure that patients receive evidence-based care.
• Reduce variation in treatment.
• Understand the relationship between intervention and outcomes.
• Communicate leadership goals.
• Compare one organization to other similar organizations across the country.
• Improve accountability of staff.
• Identify problems and evaluate solutions.
• Establish guidelines for delivery of care (Dlugacz, 2006, pp. 63-64).

You are the CEO of an ambulatory care clinic. Your facility provides outpatient, orthopedic procedures. Your facility directly competes with the local hospital. The hospital participates in several quality initiatives and is accredited by The Joint Commission (TJC). The hospital has created care maps to ensure evidence-based care is provided to all orthopedic patients. Your facility is owned by a physician group. This same physician group also staffs the hospital. You are not aware of any types of care maps or evidence-based practice polices and procedures within your ambulatory clinic.

The hospital administrator is coming to meet with you in two days. This administrator is concerned about the financial loss of patients from the hospital due to the increasing trends of these patients being served by the ambulatory care clinic. The physicians have come to you to ask for a positive solution. What type of data will you collect? How will you respond to issues of quality? What do you project the outcome should be?

In a 250- to 300-word post, present an outline of the steps (in prioritized order) you will take to resolve this current issue.