In 2011, Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality established 14 clinical communities to connect frontline providers and improve care quality and value. The advantages and challenges of these communities have been highlighted in a recent study published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
Clinical communities have been emerging as a new approach to quality improvement.
Highlighted below are five things to know about the Armstrong Institute's clinical communities and the results of the institute's study.
1. To improve quality of care, patient safety and value across the health system, the Armstrong Institute established its clinical communities and connected with six different local hospitals.
2. Each community could focus on a specific clinical area, patient population, group, process, safety-related issue or healthcare issue with help from the hospitals involved with the clinical community.
3. The communities engaged in team-building activities, facilitated discussions and held monthly meetings to develop relationships and build trust. The clinical communities also invited patients and families to join and share their perspectives and experiences.
4. All total, the clinical communities engaged nearly 200 clinicians from across the health system in quality improvement projects and peer learning activities.
5. Challenges the communities faced included limited financial support and time for clinicians, timely access to data, limited resources from the health system and not enough time with improvement experts.