QI as resolution to a major lawsuit

In 1991, in response to a lawsuit filed in 1974, the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (TXMHMR) became the first major state agency in Texas to implement a systemwide effort to implement quality improvement (QI) in its Quality System Oversight (QSO) program. QSO: The QSO approach includes a uniform internal hospital management structure focusing on teams and data-based decision making; the development of uniform work processes for each of the issues cited in the lawsuit; and a uniform set of procedures for determining compliance, including the establishment of numeric targets for which each hospital is accountable.

At one TXMHMR hospital, patient records in a monthly random sample were below the performance target. Data showed that approximately 40% of the patients leave the hospital (many for a community mental health center) before a treatment plan (at 14 days) is developed. Based on a team's recommendations, a uniform assessment package is being developed for use by all TXMHMR hospitals and community mental health centers.

In 1994, again in response to external pressures to improve quality, TXMHMR used a simplified version of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria for organizational self-assessment. Two pilot sites have developed action plans for improving performance as indicated on the self-assessments.

The QSO program, put into place as a result of a lawsuit, provides a structure and database for TXMHMR to efficiently and effectively manage the performance of all hospitals in the system. All but one of the eight hospitals have exited, or are close to exiting, the lawsuit.