Use of a Quality Scorecard to Enhance Quality and Safety in Community Hospital Newborn Nurseries

Quality Dashboards in Hospital Settings

“…Seven studies were case reports where authors shared their organization(s)'experiences. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] One was a collective case study, 28 2 used descriptive surveys to evaluate dashboards, 29,30 and one was an interrupted time series study to evaluate patient outcomes. 31 Five studies used mixed methods for dashboard evaluation that included interviews, observations, and surveys/ questionnaires [32][33][34][35] ; with one applying a realist evaluation framework.…”

“…These 3 criteria were also lacking in 3 quantitative studies. [28][29][30] The interrupted time series study 31 met all quantitative appraisal criteria.…”

Scoring Quality, Scoring Equity: The Promise and Power of Scorecards to Facilitate Bidirectional, Real-Time Communication

“…[4][5][6] There is a continued need for deeper consideration of patient-, community-, and hospital-level factors that may contribute to variation and inequities within and between hospitals, 7,8 In this volume of The Journal, Logan et al provide an important example of the potential for innovation to move in multiple directions, including top down and peer to peer. 9 They show the feasibility and usefulness of scorecards to track quality metrics across 4 Level 1 and 2 community hospital nurseries affiliated with their larger hospital. In creating a framework for reporting quality and safety metrics and providing guidance on how to use QI methodology, they succeed in making QI accessible and allowing improvement to flourish in the local context.…”

“…For example, scorecards may be used to track what the National Quality Forum defines as "disparities-sensitive measures." These include measures with a known disparity, those impacted by provider 9 Designing scorecards to present stratified data in real time to stakeholders and sponsors requires a grasp of the granularities of local and systemic demographic data collection. Such efforts are revealing of data practices overall and may clarify resource allocation needs, both within existing data infrastructure and in community-specific outcomes.…”

“…In summary, Logan et al provide important insights into the need for collaborative efforts among larger resourcerich institutions and smaller community hospitals. 9 Although their work provides a foundation for inclusion of community hospitals and making QI accessible, it is also important to recognize that progress requires a reciprocal dialogue, and that equity should be integrated into all phases of the improvement journey. Tools like scorecards provide an important opportunity to capture and analyze the reasons for within-hospital and between-hospital differences in outcomes of interest to decrease disparities in neonatal care.…”