A collaborative approach to standards, practices. Setting the stage for continuous quality improvement

In retrospect, the most important thing we did was work together. We analyzed, refined, and validated our philosophical approach to patient care. We provided an information data base that is readily available for on-the-job reference and serves as a starting point for CQI activities. The very act of joint documentation of practices encourages open discussions about improvements to patient care. One physician states, We know that flaws in the process through which we produce care are everywhere--waste, duplication of effort, unnecessary complexity, and unpredictability . . . I believe that modern total quality management offers enormous hope to a medical care field that is rather desperate. . . . Collaborative practice and CQI activities are one hope. The scope of what nurses and physicians traditionally consider when discussing standards and practices must widen. We should no longer look only at patient care. We must simultaneously focus on how the management of total systems influences quality care for all patients. The CQI process, a proactive method, requires an accurate data base of information that is easily retrieved when looking for systems and individual patient care improvements. Our Computerized Collaborative Standards and Practices Manual is the reservoir for documenting practice plans developed and approved by all the disciplines involved. The process described here began with two closely knit operating room disciplines; this framework, however, offers the potential for expansion into a hospital-wide system of information organization and use.