Building Your List of Data

January 22, 2010

Last month's article discussed the need for the following three lists to help manage your quality and safety program:

• Processes
• Active projects
• Most important data

This month we will look at an approach to building your list of data.

The data list is vital as you begin the process of making sure you have the right data and the right amount of data, are effectively communicating the data, and that it is causing change. One of the main reasons for making this list is that we are often overwhelmed by the amount of data that is available. With many thousands of pieces of data, which we can plot against any other piece of data, we end up with millions of combinations of data—no wonder we get overwhelmed. Unfortunately, the magnitude of data often stops us from even making the list.

Don't Get Overwhelmed—A Partial List Is Better than No List

Don't fret that your list of data will not be complete—it will likely never be. Just get started and gather the most important data on the list first. One good approach is to start with reports instead of the data. If there is already a report, it is likely that the data are being used, and that moves it up a notch. Reports are also easier to collect.

Start with the organizational dashboards and then move to the department and service line dashboards. This should get most of your core measure data and important performance data.

After you have collected the data from the dashboards, add on the required reports to the board or your state. This will likely include all the CMS or Joint Commission data.

Now start rounding up all those other reports. For each of your data systems, print the list of reports and add them to the list. Remember that there are reports in compliance, risk, pharmacy, lab, nursing, medical equipment, etc.

Now you should have a list of several hundred data reports that are likely being used in the organization.

Begin Managing the Data List

Once you have the initial data list based on the reports, you want to begin using this list as a tool. Now is a great time to get the list in Excel or Access and begin to add some fields to help you manage the data list. Remember, you are not managing the actual data here, you are simply managing the names of the reports. Consider adding fields to your spreadsheet to capture some of the following:

• Who uses the data reports? The more departments or service lines that use the report, the more likely it is that the data are useful.
• What is the report used for? How is the report connected to action? How does it trigger action?
• Are the reports required by regulation?
• Are they seen as credible, or are the underlying data questionable or is the report dismissed by parts of the organization?
• What system does the report come from?
• Give the report a grade. Is the report easy to use and understand? Does it provide good management decision support or just numbers?
• What is the lag? Are the data in the report up to date or does the report reflect historical data that are several months old?

  Now sort through the various categories and roll up the list of reports into different areas. Look for the most important reports and what data are on them. Often you will see that there are some widely used reports that do not show up on the dashboard, and some of the dashboard data may not tie directly into actions.

  From this initial list you can begin to grow your report management, which then can lead you to better management of your data, which is vital if you want to effectively improve your safety and quality.