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A journey toward high reliability begins with organizational readiness and strategically incorporates clinical alignment, evidence-based practices and plans to manage patients across settings. Even with so much momentum, perhaps the most difficult element of care delivery optimization is sustaining the improvement. In fact, more than 50 percent of healthcare professionals in a Premier® survey said their organization's status as a high-reliability organization was either the same or had declined compared to a year prior.
Once stakeholders create and implement a new care protocol together, it can still be easy to slip into old habits weeks or months later. However, improvement is only meaningful if it is maintained, and this requires that organizations continually monitor progress and report metrics to leadership and stakeholders. Doing so will promote organizational awareness of the best practices, accelerate change and help teams strive for excellence.
Here are five standards to have in place to help support the gains:
Even with these elements in place, one of the biggest challenges that organizations face in sustaining improvement is an overabundance of priorities. Too many priorities or ones that compete with each other ultimately contribute to an unsustainable environment. To be successful, improvement efforts should align with business priorities and initiatives that ultimately contribute to the organization's long-term strategy and goals.
When tasked with a new project, leaders may want to ask, “How does this initiative contribute to our three-year goal to reduce mortality?” or, “Will this new project align with our current patient safety efforts, which are on pace to improve our CMS Star ratings?” With a proper understanding of how new tactics fit into current targets – and how they align with ongoing performance improvement work – organizations can ensure the right work is prioritized to deliver consistent and optimal care. And, leaders who take the time to regularly discuss how a team’s day-to-day work supports organizational priorities will encourage morale and show how every team member can make a positive impact in the organization.
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