Informatics and evidence-based medicine: prescription for success

This article reports on the experience of one organization between 2004 and 2009 to develop an effective people-process-technology system to better manage the quality of health care. The creation of this system started with creating a strategic plan for quality and then establishing a structure to implement the plan. The next phase consisted of establishing a number of simultaneous steps that ranged from identifying and leveraging the appropriate informatics tools to the oversight process, and from the implementation team to strategies for working with clinical groups. The outcome as of 2009 is a well established evidence-based quality process and team in place. There are over 450 evidence-based medicine quality sets. More than 52% of all patients are admitted on quality evidence-based medicine pathways and protocols. This article reflects a successful prescription for combining informatics and evidence-based medicine to improve the quality of health care.