Other Metrics

Assessing Processes of Heart Failure Care

As you implement new order sets, algorithms, and guidelines, your team will need to assess if your efforts are leading to the desired changes in practice.

A.    Use of Heart Failure Improvement Tools

You may have developed a number of tools to improve heart failure care (visit the Clinical Tools section of the room for examples) and monitoring how those tools are being used is very important to understand the impact of your intervention and possible revisions to them.

When you uncover a change in tool use, it is important to investigate its root causes.  Perhaps the definitions have changed, or staff previously assigned to this area has been reassigned, or the tool itself needs revision.

B.   Other Data Collection strategies

Although ideally, you would like to systematically collect data over time, sometimes it can be very overwhelming for individuals primarily involved in patient care to imagine developing a sustainable system of data collection.  To this end, it is important to be mindful of resource constraints and consider using strategies such as intermittent sampling to help identify a gap and monitor it over time.  This approach has limitations, but is a way to help teams less familiar with data collection to get started.

Other Considerations and Metrics

Your team will likely embark on dozens of interventions. Examples of other metrics that can be used to track the success of these efforts include:

• Track the percentage of patients with heart failure who are on 2 gram sodium diets.

• Survey your physicians and nurses on their satisfaction with order sets or protocols.

• Survey your physicians and nurses on their attitudes and beliefs heart failure care delivery

• Track patient satisfaction with their heart failure care in the hospital, including the education they received.