Quality That "Touches Your World"

UAB Synopsis, Vol. 24, No. 38, October 17, 2005

University Hospital will celebrate National Healthcare Quality Week October 17 through 21.

"Quality that Touches Your World is our 2005 theme because it speaks to the wonderful staff who work to ensure quality care for patients and improve the work environment for employees," Quality Improvement (QI) Coordinator Fameka Leonard RN, MSN, says.

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Each year during Healthcare Quality Week, the hospital honors its dedication to continuous quality improvement, culminating this year in the ninth annual Quality Day on Wednesday, October 19, with the hospital-wide Storyboard Contest. As the week's centerpiece, the contest offers departments a chance to display QI activities in a visual form. It will be held from 9 am to 3 pm in West Pavilion Conference Room E.

Storyboards demonstrate how participants select a process they target for improvement, collect data to establish a baseline, implement changes to enhance the process, and finally remeasure data to assess success, Leonard says. "Viewing these storyboards is motivating because they transform quality theory into real-life situations involving hospital patients and employees."

Examples abound. One is the DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) Team. This multidisciplinary group assessed and investigated process issues and then educated hospital staff on improving DVT prophylaxis and treatment. Since implementation of DVT Team actions, the DVT-associated mortality rate has decreased substantially.

"Through Quality Week, employees realize they can positively impact the hospital processes," Leonard says. "The storyboards are judged and prizes are given, but the main objective is recognizing all the diverse ways that quality is applied throughout the organization and celebrating the hard work employees do to make it happen."

As UAB Health System Chief Strategy and Quality Officer Scott Buchalter, MD, says, "These projects increase awareness and appreciation of our emphasis on health care quality and are a way of celebrating our considerable successes."