Engagement and Bundle Compliance during COVID-19: A Virtual Strategy

Area of Science:

• Healthcare quality improvement
• Infection control and prevention
• Patient safety

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted standard healthcare operations, impacting the ability to conduct hospital-acquired condition (HAC) auditing and engagement.
• Competing priorities during the pandemic challenged hospitals' capacity to maintain essential quality improvement processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a flexible, virtual strategy for sustaining engagement and compliance in HAC auditing.
• To maintain baseline bundle compliance for unplanned extubation, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and employee staff safety HACs with no more than a 20% decrease.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a three-pronged approach focusing on virtual engagement and process sustainment.
• Regular leadership meetings utilizing multiple virtual communication modalities.
• Enhancement of the audit process and ensuring fidelity to bundle elements for key HACs.

Main Results:

• Exceeded the goal of maintaining monthly bundle compliance for targeted HACs.
• Observed a significant positive change in the rate of HAC audits post-implementation of the virtual strategy.
• Qualitative findings indicated consistent engagement between leaders, quality improvement staff, and teams via virtual touchpoints.

Conclusions:

• The virtual engagement strategy proved effective in adapting structure and processes during a pandemic.
• Increased virtual touchpoints and communication can enhance engagement in HAC work, with generalizable results.
• The approach demonstrates the adaptability of healthcare quality improvement initiatives in response to external challenges.