ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to present an overview of the Quality Indicator (QI) Project® and use case studies to show how hospitals have used indicator rates to evaluate and improve the care they provide. The hospital already had a well-organized infection control system, but the development and collation of the infection indicators gave a further boost to its effectiveness. Since the inception of the QI Project®, a number of national and performance measurement systems have been launched, focusing on hospital-based care and managed care. The decision to limit zeeess to the QI Project® data to participants was primarily based on the intent to encourage improvement within, rather than public comparison among, hospitals. For many years the Emergency Department (ED) staff at Bon Secours Hospital, which serves an inner-city community, suspected that patient waiting time was excessively long. ED staffleaders were able to persuade the hospital’s administration that there were many poorly functioning processes that required improvement.
