Language of Improvement: Metrics, Key Performance Indicators, Benchmarks, Analytics, Scorecards, and Dashboards

摘要

Perioperative nurses must know what data to collect, how to interpret it, and how to select the best methods of analysis to make quality, action-oriented decisions, such as determining which product creates the best outcomes for a particular patient population (eg, elderly patients undergoing hip procedures) or how to improve staffing mix based on the surgical case load per day. The complexity of data that nurses manage continues to increase. Nurses generate simple forms to track procedure or supply information or show the progress of a quality improvement project. Rules develop out of continued use of the form to ensure consistency of the documentation. For example, all nurses use the same indicator to record the start of a patient procedure, such as "patient enters the OR." The consistency in recording the start times allows for accurate comparison to the scheduled start times for the patient procedures. There must be a system in place for storage and retrieval of the data for analysis purposes. Nurses know and understand the critical components of their practice. Therefore, it is important for nurses to clarify and determine the most important elements of complex data so they can generate reliable and valid reports that provide insights on which to base best-practice decisions.