Streamlining quality reporting for ambulatory care

Ambulatory care sits in an awkward middle ground. Clinics affiliated with a hospital system often have access to the hospital's enterprise reporting platform, which was designed for inpatient volumes and workflows. Staff end up working around a system that doesn't match how a clinic runs.

Independent ambulatory organizations, such as surgery centers, multi-specialty practices and urgent care networks, face the opposite problem: they often have no formal reporting system at all, because enterprise platforms aren't built for their scale. Paper logs and informal tracking fill the gap.

Accreditors expect more than that. AAAHC standards call for a quality improvement program and a written safety program with processes for the timely reporting of near misses, hazards and other safety concerns, and Joint Commission ambulatory accreditation has its own patient safety and performance improvement standards. Informal logs make that evidence hard to produce when surveyors arrive.

Right-size the system to the clinic: event categories that fit outpatient work, a short form staff can finish between patients, and review by the clinic's own leaders.

For clinics affiliated with a hospital system, a reporting setup configured for ambulatory work tends to get used, which is where the value lies: more reports, better data and less time spent working around the tool.

When each event carries an owner, a status and a record of what was done, accreditation preparation becomes a review of records you already have rather than a scramble to recreate them.

• Define a short list of event categories that fit outpatient work, such as specimen labeling, medication errors, falls, missed test results and procedure complications.
• Post QR codes at check-in, in procedure rooms and at the lab draw station so staff can report between patients.
• Name the clinic manager or medical director who reviews each category.
• Bring a monthly summary to your quality committee and record the actions taken in the minutes.

Whether you're moving off a hospital system or starting from paper, we set up your event categories and routing rules with you and import whatever past records you want to keep.

• Staff report from a phone, tablet, desktop or a QR code posted in the clinic.
• Event categories and templates are configured for your setting rather than borrowed from inpatient care.
• Each report is routed to the team that reviews it, with an owner and a status, and named reporters hear what was done.
• HIPAA compliance, a BAA and SSO are included in every package.