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Quality Improvement for Rapid Development and Scale-Up of COVID-19-Related Screening Processes
Emily A Shears1, Paul G Henkel2, David Mayhaus3
1James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence, emily.shears@cchmc.org.
Background:
In March 2020, Ohio strongly recommended temperature and health screening for coronavirus disease 2019 symptoms in all businesses to reduce the spread of infection.
Methods:
We used multiple plan-do-study-act cycles and workplace efficiency techniques iteratively to develop 12 intervention components required to effectively screen employees and visitors across all locations. We used run and control charts to summarize our performance over time.
Results:
Over the course of 20 days of rapid testing, we increased from 0% to 100% of locations successfully screening. The volume of people undergoing screening peaked during employee shift change. Employee positive screen results decreased by >50% after the first 7 days of screening, whereas family positive screen results remained stable throughout the study period.
Conclusions:
An empowered, multidepartmental steering team, disciplined use of rapid cycle quality improvement processes, and explicit, standardized training processes enabled rapid successful scale-up of standard screening and masking process for employees and patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This approach can assist hospitals in adapting screening processes to evolving evidence.
