Small changes can have a large-scale impact on day-to-day tasks. Horizon Health Care, Inc., a network of federally qualified health centers serving South Dakota, used jelly beans to track progress on colorectal cancer screening during each phase of their quality improvement project.
Leonard Wonnenberg, PA-C, shared Horizon’s success story during the “Impact of Systems on a Smaller Scale” webinar held on Tuesday, March 14. The webinar is the first in the Provider Perspectives on Patient-Centered Care webinar series offered as a partnership effort of the South Dakota State Medical Association and the South Dakota Foundation for Medical Care, a member of the Great Plains Quality Innovation Network.
“Every member of the healthcare team has many responsibilities during the day. Tracking is an essential element for quality improvement and it can be done without creating a burden. Dropping a blue or red jelly bean into a jar to track an action is quick, easy and effective,” Wonnenberg declared.
As the clinical director for Horizon, Wonnenberg works to promote quality improvement throughout the organization. Using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Model for Improvement, staff develop AIM statements, review data, determine root cause, establish measures and track progress.
Colored jelly beans in a jar was a fun and easy way to track a rapid improvement cycle and determine best practices for routine tasks within the system. Engaging the entire health care team on progress and next steps is essential to identify obstacles and solutions.
Using the electronic health record, Horizon Health Care, Inc. reports real-time progress and shares provider-level data to motivate and engage staff to improve. Horizon has more than doubled their colorectal cancer screening rate since 2014 and has set a goal of 50 percent for 2017.
Interested in increasing colorectal cancer screening at your organization? Great Plains QIN staff are available to provide technical assistance, tools and resources to advance quality improvement efforts for increasing colorectal cancer screening.