Holland Hospital
Improving Pneumonia Care by Hardwiring Process Enhancements
Holland Hospital has significantly improved its performance on the pneumonia process-of-care, or core measures, over the last five years. The core measures, developed by the Hospital Quality Alliance, relate to provision of recommended treatment in four clinical areas: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care. Holland Hospital performs in at least the top 20 percent in all four areas, and particularly well in pneumonia and surgical care.
Performance Improvement Strategies
- Analysts perform concurrent review of medical records for core measure patients; noncompliant cases are flagged and most issues can be addressed before patients leave the hospital.
- Responsibility for taking blood cultures transferred from phlebotomists to emergency room nurses. Because the nurses are also responsible for administering antibiotics, they can control the order in which the two interventions occur.
- All full-time staff members, from janitors to emergency room clinicians, have a stake in the hospital’s performance on the core measures.
