What does quality mean to you?

Quality. It’s something we all think we understand, but struggle to define. It suffers from the “I’ll know it when I see it” syndrome. Too often quality is a buzzword that is used in health care settings without hard data to support it. That’s why we are thrilled that Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford has been recognized in a national quality improvement project that measured results at 250 hospitals across the country.

Texas Health HEB was named a top improver in coronary artery bypass graft and hip and knee surgeries. The hospital also was named an attainer – in other words we met or beat the median score of other hospitals – in heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia cases.

So what does this mean to you, our patients?

It means that at Texas Health HEB we approach quality much as a football coach approaches the season. We set goals, identify champions (quarterbacks if you will), develop a plan that includes every player on our team, and implement a strategy based on evidence-based best practices. We’re lucky here that all our team members from every level of employees to physicians on the medical staff all contribute to the overall effort. Each employee benefits when the entire team is working in unison toward the evidence-based goals. In turn, you, the patient, benefits.

In a way, the overall national project is an experiment in finding the best ways to improve patient care. The Hospital Quality Improvement Demonstration project is the only one of its kind that is designed to determine how economic incentives can help hospitals to improve inpatient care. By meeting and exceeding the standards, Texas Health HEB received more than $61,000.

But we’re not content to rest on the successes we’ve had. We’ll continue to formulate a game plan so that as new data is released we tweak our policies and procedures. In the meantime, click here if you’d like more information on the project or to see greater detail on the scores.

Deborah Paganelli, FACHE
Texas Health HEB president