Enhancing healthcare efficiency to achieve the Quadruple Aim: an exploratory study

Abstract

Objective: Healthcare is battling a conflict between the Quadruple Aims-reducing costs; improving population health, patient experience, and team well-being-and productivity. This quasi-experimental pilot study tested a 2 week intervention aimed to address the Quadruple Aims while improving productivity. Participants were 25 employees and their patients in a primary care clinic. One provider and their team implemented an efficiency-focused intervention that modified work roles and processes focused on utilizing all team members' skills as allowable by applicable licensure restrictions. The five remaining providers and their teams comprised the reference group, who continued patient care as usual. Study outcomes were measured via provider/staff and patient surveys and administrative data. Results: In total, 46 team surveys and 156 patient surveys were collected. Clinic output data were retrieved for 467 visits. Compared to the reference team, the intervention team performed better in all Quadruple Aims and productivity measures. The intervention group offered 48% more patient slots than the average reference team. These preliminary results support the feasibility of introducing substantial process changes that show promising improvement in both the Quadruple Aims and productivity. A larger-scale study over a longer time period is needed to confirm findings and examine feasibility and cost-effectiveness.

Development and assessment of a hospital-led, community-partnering COVID-19 testing and prevention program for homeless and congregate living services in Toronto, Canada: a descriptive feasibility study

“…and V.L.K. using a priori performance indicator questions 12 – 14 and was reviewed and revised by team experts for content validity. 15 …”

Getting going on time: reducing neurophysiology set-up times in order to contribute to improving surgery start and finish times

“…Several NHS organisations are going beyond the widely-adopted Triple Aim of healthcare 18 to add staff experience and well-being, to pursue a Quadruple Aim (improving population health, patient experience and team well-being, while reducing costs). [19][20][21] In our case, as often, our problem impacts all four of these key dimensions of healthcare delivery. On top of this, the pandemic has prompted renewed focus on staff well-being.…”

“…In addition to impact on quality of care, late finishes also take a toll on staff. Several NHS organisations are going beyond the widely-adopted Triple Aim of healthcare18 to add staff experience and well-being, to pursue a Quadruple Aim (improving population health, patient experience and team well-being, while reducing costs) 19–21. In our case, as often, our problem impacts all four of these key dimensions of healthcare delivery.…”

Production and market comparison of urokinase and streptokinase as effective and cheap fibrinolytic agents for treatment of cardiovascular diseases

“…Generally, fibrinolytic agents activate the fibrinolytic system by converting the proenzyme plasminogen (inactive form) into its active form plasmin. Specific activators (tissue type activators and the vascular type activators) present in various tissues and body fluids are required for the activation of the fibrinolytic system (Arnetz et al, 2020). Thrombolytic treatment is mainly directed towards the activation of plasminogen to plasmin at the location of thrombus, on the surface of fibrin (Stephani et al, 2017).…”