Written by The Connecticut Department of Public Health is working to create a culture of Quality. They have researched all the national standards that are applicable to residents in the state (such as the Centers for Disease Control and Environmental Protection Agency), and created a list of performance measures that they are trying to achieve.
The actual impact on residents is most important, which drives the need for better metrics of success. An example she uses in getting beyond the initial data to see the true impact is the Tobacco Quit Line. One metric they can track is how many people call the number, but a better metric is how many actually quit tobacco use.
They created a performance dashboard to track 150 measures of how they’re doing, and publish that data to their website, which is accessible by anyone.
If they identify a gap in performance, then they apply Lean and quality improvement methods to that gap. Joan Ascheim highlighted two lean improvements they worked on:
- Physician and Licensing Investigation Process Time Reduction
- Paperwork reduction for Lead Poisoning Prevention Program
You can watch the 7-minute video called “2016 Lean Showcase – Department of Public Health” at https://www.gembaacademy.com/guests/state-of-connecticut