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Collaborating to Improve Performance and Quality: Lean Management and Core Measure Improvement

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Duration: 60 Minutes

Cost: $99.00

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Overview

North Carolina small and rural hospitals are collaborating to drive break-through performance in quality and operational improvement. Early scenarios of healthcare reform predict that rural hospitals will be challenged to dramatically reduce expenses and while improving quality performance. North Carolina's hospital association and the state office of rural health cooperatively manage rural hospital performance collaboratives to improve core measure care and to help rural hospitals successfully transform their operating system to a lean culture.

Jeff Spade, the Executive Director of the NC Rural Health Resource Center, will describe the organization, management and results of the core measure and lean management collaboratives. Emphasis will be given to the value of learning collaboratives, key performance improvement capacities for rural hospitals and the potential to lead and spread lean management as a transformation model for rural healthcare. Participants will learn how these model collaboratives can be replicated locally and regionally to improve rural hospital performance.

Small and Rural Hospital Quality Improvement Project

The NC Rural Health Center actively developed a nation-leading small, rural hospital collaborative to support 28 rural NC hospitals, including 18 CAHs, to improve care for hospitalized congestive heart failure and pneumonia patients. The small, rural hospitals collectively improved pneumonia care 173% and CHF care 102%. Nearly 100% of CAHs participate in a transparent website that features care performance for all NC hospitals (www.nchospitalquality.org), with several rural hospitals and CAHs achieving Top 10% performance in core measure categories.

Rural Hospital Lean Culture Transformation

Five rural hospitals in western North Carolina are organized into a collaborative to transform the culture of the small, rural NC hospitals to a lean management model. The collaborative completed its first successful year in Summer 2009. Hospitals that adopt a lean management culture are routinely able to achieve breakthrough performance in quality of care, customer service, expense management and in employee and physician satisfaction. A second rural hospital lean transformation collaborative is being organized in eastern North Carolina.