Quality improvement practices used by teaching versus non-teaching trauma centres: analysis of a multinational survey of adult trauma centres in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

Uncovering Cultural Barriers to Quality Improvement Learning in a Trauma Program: An Ethnographic Study

OBJECTIVE

Quality improvement (QI) training is an essential component of postgraduate surgical education and can occur through formal and informal education programs. Informal QI education requires that faculty take advantage of learning opportunities in the hospital setting. Trauma rotations appear ideal opportunities for informal QI learning given that performance improvement is a mandatory component of care at verified trauma centers. It is unclear, however, whether QI initiatives within trauma programs are well integrated into trainee education. This study explored the QI learning environment in a level 1 academic trauma center.

STUDY DESIGN

An ethnographic study using observation and interviews methods. The theoretical lens of hidden curriculum was used to interpret the data and generate hypotheses around faculty and trainee experiences.

SETTING

University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center.

PARTICIPANTS

Twenty-seven observations involving more than 50 faculty and trainees; seventeen interviews with faculty and surgical trainees.

RESULTS

All faculty and trainees endorsed QI and informal QI learning. Discrepant experiences were found regarding opportunities to learn and do QI in the clinical setting. Faculty viewed themselves as perpetually doing and teaching QI while trainees perceived little to no QI learning. Trainees identified Morbidity and Mortality rounds as the main opportunity for QI learning; however, traditional teaching style through "pimping" and a largely clinical focus acted as barriers to QI education. Furthermore, trainees chiefly viewed QI as service to the institution, rather than as a form of learning, which contributed to their disinterest in taking up informal QI lessons.

CONCLUSION

Informal QI education is highly valued and desired in academic trauma centers but enduring teaching methods, inconsistencies in the cultural learning environment and a hidden curriculum devaluing QI learning are persistent barriers to change.

Acute care surgery and emergency general surgery: Addition by subtraction

INTRODUCTION

The formation of Acute Care Surgery services leads to decreased time to treatment and improved outcomes for emergency general surgery (EGS) patients. However, minimal work has focused on the ideal care delivery system and team structure. We hypothesize that the implementation of a dedicated EGS team (separate from trauma and surgical critical care), with EGS-specific protocols and dedicated operating room (OR) time, will increase productivity and improve mortality.

METHODS

This is a retrospective review of financial and EGS registry data from fiscal year (FY) 12 to FY15. Data are from an academic, university-based EGS team composed of two acute care surgery attending surgeons, advanced practitioners (APs), residents, and a fellow. In FY12, processes were implemented to standardize paging of consults, patient sign-out with attending surgeons' and APs' participation, clinical/billing protocols, OR availability, and quality improvement. Outcomes included relative value units (RVUs), surgical case volume, charges/payments, and number of patient encounters. The secondary outcome was mortality. The χ test was used to compare mortality, and p < 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

Total patient encounters increased from 6,723 in FY 12 to 9,238 in FY 15 (+37%). Relative value units increased from 18,422 in FY 12 to 25,314 in FY 15 (+37%). Charges increased by 76% and payments increased by 60% from FY 12 to FY 15. Charges per encounter increased from $461 in FY 12 to $591 in FY 15 (+28%) Additionally, both inpatient and surgical case loads increased. Mortality remained stable throughout the study period (FY 12, 4.5%; FY 13, 5.2%; FY 14, 5.3%; FY 15, 3.2%: p = 0.177).

CONCLUSIONS

Implementation of dedicated OR time, defined EGS team structure, practice protocols, and active attending surgeons'/APs' participation was temporally related to increased case volume, patients seen, and revenue, while mortality remained unchanged. Further study is necessary to establish the translatability of these data to other systems.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Economic/decision, level III.

Depicting the interplay between organisational tiers in the use of a national quality registry to develop quality of care in Sweden

Background

With a pending need to identify potential means to improved quality of care, national quality registries (NQRs) are identified as a promising route. Yet, there is limited evidence with regards to what hinders and facilitates the NQR innovation, what signifies the contexts in which NQRs are applied and drive quality improvement. Supposedly, barriers and facilitators to NQR-driven quality improvement may be found in the healthcare context, in the politico-administrative context, as well as with an NQR itself. In this study, we investigated the potential variation with regards to if and how an NQR was applied by decision-makers and users in regions and clinical settings. The aim was to depict the interplay between the clinical and the politico-administrative tiers in the use of NQRs to develop quality of care, examining an established registry on stroke care as a case study.

Methods

We interviewed 44 individuals representing the clinical and the politico-administrative settings of 4 out of 21 regions strategically chosen for including stroke units representing a variety of outcomes in the NQR on stroke (Riksstroke) and a variety of settings. The transcribed interviews were analysed by applying The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).

Results

In two regions, decision-makers and/or administrators had initiated healthcare process projects for stroke, engaging the health professionals in the local stroke units who contributed with, for example, local data from Riksstroke. The Riksstroke data was used for identifying improvement issues, for setting goals, and asserting that the stroke units achieved an equivalent standard of care and a certain level of quality of stroke care. Meanwhile, one region had more recently initiated such a project and the fourth region had no similar collaboration across tiers. Apart from these projects, there was limited joint communication across tiers and none that included all individuals and functions engaged in quality improvement with regards to stroke care.

Conclusions

If NQRs are to provide for quality improvement and learning opportunities, advances must be made in the links between the structures and processes across all organisational tiers, including decision-makers, administrators and health professionals engaged in a particular healthcare process.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-015-1188-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.