Leaders at Plano, Texas-based Oceans Healthcare are centering transparency as a key organizational mission with the public release of an enterprise behavioral health quality report, Kristen Tefft, vice president of quality, told Becker’s.
“[Oceans Healthcare] pushes us to be transparent with our employees and our patients to make sure we’re posting [information] in the hospital so people can see what our quality priorities are,” Ms. Tefft said. “[Leadership] wanted to go bigger.”
Oceans identified and publicly posted key quality priorities — restraint and seclusion use, de-escalation before restraint, patient experience scores and crisis safety planning at discharge — along with national benchmarks on its website.
This data has always been available, but a health system organizing and posting those measurables is uncommon. Built on existing clinical, operational and data infrastructure, the quality report is designed to hold the organization accountable, align leaders and front-line staff, and demonstrate key measurable outcomes across the organization, she said.
“Instead of it just living in a spreadsheet or living in a report somewhere, [we are] making sure that we’re putting it out there and we’re owning it,” Ms. Tefft said. “We’re going to constantly review it and improve upon it.”
Leaders across the organization receive quality reports in their inboxes throughout the week, helping to prioritize operational efforts. Oceans created data infrastructure within its EHR system to enable systemwide visibility into quality priorities and faster operational response. This real-time access eliminates the need to wait for quarterly meetings to drive change, Ms. Tefft said.
Public reporting also reinforced internal engagement by directly involving front-line staff — including doctors, nurses and pharmacists — and incorporating their input on how to improve quality measures. Their feedback is vital as they are closest to day-to-day care delivery, she said.
“In the quality world, transparency is key to learning and improvement,” Ms. Tefft said. “The more consistency we get across the behavioral health world, from a quality perspective, the more we can learn from each other and expand on that. The goal is to make sure that we’re treating the patients with dignity, respect and giving them quality of care.”
