St. Luke's Medical Center: Bottom-Up Approach to Quality Improvement in Pneumonia Care

Highlights strategies for improving pneumonia care, including frontline staff leadership, reassigning responsibilities, ongoing nursing staff education, and the use of evidence-based best practices, concurrent review, and streamlined standing order sets

Parkview Medical Center: Underscoring the Importance of Communication in Pneumonia Care

Highlights successful strategies for excellence in pneumonia care, including evidence-based education, regular communication, and reinforcement via concurrent review; reassigning vaccination responsibilities; and improving antibiotic selection and timing

Walla Walla General Hospital: Setting Staff Up for Success in Pneumonia Care

Outlines education and reinforcement strategies, including building a quality culture and implementing a hospitalist program, standardized order sets, and staff supports, that enable high performance on pneumonia care core measures. Lists lessons learned

Texas Health Harris Methodist-Cleburne: A System Approach to Surgical Improvement

Outlines successful strategies for improving surgical care, including systemwide collaboration, concurrent review, changes to care processes, redefined responsibilities, and preprinted order sets. Lists challenges and lessons learned

Holland Hospital: Improving Pneumonia Care by Hardwiring Process Enhancements

Outlines successful strategies for improving care for pneumonia, including implementing core measure teams, concurrent reviews, financial incentives, a focus on system factors, preprinted order sets, and reassigning tasks. Presents lessons learned

Western Baptist Hospital: Problem-Solving With Pneumonia Care Performance Improvement Teams

Describes successful strategies for strengthening pneumonia care, including multidisciplinary performance improvement teams, process improvements built into staff routines, peer collaboratives, standard order sets, and feedback through concurrent review

St. Charles Hospital: Improving Surgical Care Through Best-Practice Literature and Order Sets

Describes how strategies focusing on quality improvement, performance data, and feedback; best-practice literature; and standardized orders reduced surgical complications. Outlines need to engage doctors and staff in redesigning processes around measures

Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center: Excellence in Heart Attack Care Reduces Readmissions

Highlights the factors and strategies behind low readmission rates for heart attack and pneumonia patients, including a focus on quality, concurrent review, extensive training, discharge planning, patient education, and use of risk assessment software

Mercy Medical Center: Reducing Readmissions Through Clinical Excellence, Palliative Care, and Collaboration

Outlines strategies and practices behind low readmissions rates for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia patients, such as investing in advanced practice nurses who help incorporate evidence-based standards into patient care. Lists lessons learned

Achieving Efficiency: Lessons From Four Top-Performing Hospitals

Synthesizes lessons from case studies of how four hospitals achieved greater efficiency, including pursuing quality and access, customizing technology, emphasizing communications, standardizing processes, and integrating care, systems, and providers