Healthcare Analytics for Quality and Performance Improvement

Preface

Why write a book on healthcare analytics that focuses on quality and performance improvement? Why not focus instead on how healthcare information technology (HIT) and “big data” are revolutionizing healthcare, how quality improvement (QI) methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma are transforming poorly performing healthcare organizations (HCOs) into best-in-class facilities, or how leadership and vision are the necessary driving factors behind innovation and excellence within HCOs?

The truth is, this book is about all these things. Or, more accurately, this book is about how healthcare organizations need to capitalize on HIT, data from source systems, proven QI methodologies, and a spirit of innovation to achieve the transformation they require. All of these factors are necessary to achieve quality and performance improvement within modern healthcare organizations. However, the professionals working in healthcare IT, quality improvement, management, and on the front lines all speak different languages and see the world from different perspectives—technology, data, leadership, and QI. This gap (a chasm, really) prevents these professionals from effectively working together and limits their capability to perform effective quality and performance improvement activities. This may in fact be lowering the quality of care and decreasing patient safety at a time when doing the opposite is critical.

This book demonstrates how the clinical, business, quality improvement, and technology ...