"Virtual" Data Management Office: "Achieving Excellence Through Continuous Improvement and Innovation"

Purpose:
To analyze, capture and monitor nurse sensitive, demographic, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction outcomes to assist in evaluation of nursing practice. To hold an organizational place for nursing data management in a matrix structure and create a “branded” YNHH data model.

Significance:
Data Management Office's (DMO) portfolio includes education to staff at all levels on how to interpret and use the metric graphs, visually demonstrates relationships between financial, nurse sensitive, and demographic outcomes, and creates automated functions. No additional budget would be required.

Strategy and Implementation:
The “virtual” DMO meets twice per month, members includes representation from nursing, finance, and decision support. Focused initially on the responsibility for developing unit-based metrics data set to be presented and posted to all patient care areas. Encouraged engagement of direct care staff in creating interventions to impact change. Phase I focused on inpatient areas. Phase II is focusing on the inclusion of HCAHPS, outpatient, emergency services, and Perioperative Services. DMO distributes Nursing “Gold” Report made up of five components quarterly; component 1 lists Nursing staff demographics, care giver hours per patient day and award and recognition both internal and external; component 2 contains NDNQI Nurse Sensitive and Magnet Recognition Program® Metrics; component 3 contains Outpatient and Ambulatory Metrics; component 4 illustrates Patient Satisfaction / HCAHPS by service lines; and component 5 includes Employee Satisfaction/Engagement Survey and Plan of Action.

Evaluation:
The DMO has created a focus on information management, addressed front line ownership, and analyzes benchmark reports in nursing. It has created organizational tools for measuring the impact of nursing and displaying results to the organization and national reporting agencies.

Implications for Practice:
The result has been exceptional patient outcomes and a new process which increases engagement, decreases non value added work, and ensures the dissemination of quality data to direct care staff and senior leadership. Recognition of the impact was noted by Magnet appraisers in our recent designation.