Pursuing Perfect Care
Goal | What Is Perfect Care? | Improvements We've Made l History
Goal
The goal of pursuing perfect care at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is to transform the quality of health care we provide to our patients. Our efforts in pursuing perfect care will also have an impact on health care delivery across the country. This means that you and your child will benefit from improved safety and outcomes along with easier access to the resources we offer. Most importantly, Cincinnati Children's empowers you and your child by including you as part of the health care team.
Transforming patient care begins by bringing patients and families to the table with health care professionals from Cincinnati Children's. Together we look at areas of the hospital that need improvement and discuss how we can make those needed changes happen.
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What Is Perfect Care?
Perfect care is defined as timely, efficient, effective, patient-centered, equitable and safe.
As we pursue perfect care, we are focusing on family-centered, evidence-based approaches that will improve the quality and efficiency of care.
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Improvements We've Made
The pursuing perfect care effort at Cincinnati Children's has already resulted in significant improvements throughout the hospital:
- Wait time for Same Day Surgery patients was reduced from 67 to 35 minutes using an expedited outpatient process.
- We reduced instrument processing time for general surgery by 51 percent, allowing for more timely surgery.
- Ongoing training is being conducted for all surgery staff to learn how to better involve families in caring for your child.
- New surgery education packets have been designed for patients and their families.
- We reduced hospital admission rates for several common childhood illnesses by 15 percent.
- Adolescents hospitalized with cystic fibrosis customize their own inpatient schedules to meet their individual needs.
- Our Liver Care Center developed a secure web site that gives patients online access to their own medical information. The site provides information patients and families need to be active, informed members of our health care team. You can take a tour or log on to the Liver Care Portal.
- The Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Team implemented new protocols to change the way we manage weight gain in CF patients. After only 90 days, the team saw significant improvements in a number of patients.
- An improved discharge planning process has been implemented, allowing families to go home sooner after the child reaches discharge criteria.
- Parking spaces just for Same Day Surgery patients are now available.
- The average wait time for infants with a fever of uncertain source to receive antibiotic treatment after arriving in the Emergency Department has been reduced by over 53 percent.
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The History of the Pursuing Perfect Care Initiative
In April 2002, Cincinnati Children's received a $1.9 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to participate in Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health-Care Performance. In April 2004, Cincinnati Children's received an additional $300,000.
Cincinnati Children's was one of seven health care organizations, and the only pediatric center, to receive this honor. This project was initiated with the extraordinary goal of transforming the health care system in America.
Pursuing Perfection is a response to two reports from the Institute of Medicine that questioned the safety, quality, efficiency, effectiveness and fairness of the nation's health care system. Pursuing Perfection was intended to be a catalyst for rapid, transformational change. Participants are expected to produce compelling examples of how health care organizations can significantly improve.
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For more information about the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's Pursuing Perfection initiative or involvement with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, please contact Uma R. Kotagal, MBBS, MSc, 513-636-0178 or uma.kotagal@cchmc.org.
