At TUH-Jeanes Campus, quality always comes first—which is why we’re so thrilled to feature its Department of Performance Improvement, led by Director of Operations Kristen Smith. Their team has created a process that empowers employees to take ownership and participate in the development of their quality improvement plans, implementing the department’s data-driven recommendations and remaining invested in their own success.
“Our mission is to foster the delivery of exceptional care through our organization’s commitment to providing continuous quality improvement; innovation; and safe, efficient, effective, and equitable treatment,” Smith says.
“Our department provides our organization with the ability to focus on preventable complications, monitor fallouts, identify areas of opportunity, and facilitate improvement efforts pertaining to these findings,” she continues. “Quality means spending the time to evaluate each situation, develop plans of action based on the evidence gathered, and lead efforts to deploy implementations to improve outcomes, pivoting when necessary to adjust for modifications.”
While Smith’s team leads the quality improvement process, their work has succeeded in large part because they’ve been able to engage other employees. “To be effective in improving quality, it’s important that the key players involved in the process have ownership,” Smith explains. “Individuals and departments that actively participate in the development of improvement plans are more likely to take pride in the process and encourage the changes necessary to be successful.”
Her team’s recommendations are based on data, which is at the center of its approach to quality improvement. “Clinical data is imperative to facilitate improvement within documentation, patient care, and healthcare operations,” Smith says. “Utilizing the right internal and external resources to leverage our clinical data will not only improve our metrics, but will also help our organization gain valuable insight into improving care, achieving quality awards and accreditations, and increasing our potential reimbursements.”
It's not hard to understand, then, why the Jeanes team is so essential to operations across the campus and the rest of the Health System. “I’m proud to be a member of our quality team, leading and fostering Temple Health in the direction of continuous quality improvement,” Smith says.
At the same time, she also stresses that everyone at Temple plays a critical quality improvement role. “It’s important to remember that we all make a difference, we all make an impact, and we all play a vital part in maintaining and improving our organization’s quality,” she says. “We are all quality!”