Tackling Problems using the ABCs

The Problem

Hazleton General Hospital officials were unhappy with their performance on a number of core measures, many of which are on posted on the Hospital Compare Web site. Previous quality improvements efforts didn't always involve teamwork among affected departments, data would be collected for months before any action was taken, interventions were delayed and quality targets weren't always met.

The Solution

In January 2007, 14 people from across many disciplines at Hazleton began rigorous training in Baylor Health Care System's Accelerating Best Care (ABC) quality improvement process. The method focuses on three steps:

• Breaking problems down into small pieces;
• Quickly analyzing the situation through data collection; and
• Implementing rapid-cycle interventions.

During training, the Hazleton team settled on five areas in need of improvement—heart failure discharge instructions; antibiotic administration for ED patients with pneumonia; pneumococcal vaccinations; CT scans for stroke patients; and prophylactic antibiotics for particular types of surgery.

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