Читать книгу Improving Health Care Quality - Cecilia Fernanda Martinez - Страница 10

If you cannot be one of the authors, being invited to write the Foreword is perhaps the next best thing!

I say this because, when the idea for this project first came about, I had agreed to be one of the co‐authors. I was really excited about being a part of it, and to have the opportunity to contribute to the literature of the use of statistical analysis in improving the quality of healthcare delivery. The energy that Mary Ann, Cecilia, Jane, and Shirley each brought to the early discussions about the book was infectious, and I was eager to get started. Unfortunately, due to life circumstances at the time, I had to make the difficult decision to step away. It is so rewarding to see that the book has now come to fruition, and I believe it will become a great addition to the bookshelves of current and future healthcare leaders alike.

With the increasing focus on value, it is now incumbent on all healthcare professionals – not just those in the Quality department – to find ways of improving the quality of the services we and our organizations deliver. Numerous frameworks and programs such as Lean Six Sigma, High Reliability Organization, and the Institute of Medicine's six domains of health care quality (among others) exist to help identify opportunities and implement meaningful change. These evidence‐based approaches provide the necessary structure and process for successfully driving quality improvement results throughout a provider organization and help focus the attention of everyone involved toward the critical work required to attain them.

However, while each of these frameworks can be extremely useful as a guide, it is only through the review and analysis of relevant data that the most impactful opportunities for improvement can be appropriately recognized and addressed, and the success of improvement efforts ultimately measured – which is exactly what this book is designed to help you accomplish. Data literacy is now every healthcare leader's responsibility, and this text will help you learn how to apply the concepts, processes, techniques, and tools required for extracting meaningful and actionable information from your data. And do not worry if you have never before studied statistical analysis (or have but are still intimidated by it!), as everything here is presented in a very easy‐to‐follow, easy‐to‐understand manner. The use of JMP® software, which itself is quite easy to use, also facilitates the learning process.

I welcome and encourage every reader to use the information in this book to help make the quality of the care your (or your future) organization delivers the absolute best it can be, and I congratulate each of the authors on creating a fantastic resource for all of us in healthcare who strive every day to achieve this important goal. And who knows… maybe I'll get to join in for the Second Edition!

Eric Stephens, MBA, CAP

Chief Analytics Officer

Nashville General Hospital

Nashville, TN

January 11, 2020