Efforts toward the utilization of clinical indicator at Toyota Memorial Hospital

• Published in: The Journal of Japan Society for Health Care Management Vol. 8; no. 2; pp. 375 - 380
• Main Authors: Okamoto, Yasutaka, Inagaki, Haruo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan Society for Health Care Management 01.09.2007
• Subjects: clinical indicator; medical care quality improvement; medical information system
• ISSN: 1881-2503; 1884-6807
• DOI: 10.11191/jhm2006.8.375

In order to continuously improve the quality of medical care services, it is essential to utilize CIs (clinical indicators). However, the kind of CIs that is useful for our facility, and how it should be utilized to improve the quality of services was a major issue when introducing it to our hospital. Extracting the necessary data out of an enormous quantity of medical information and announcing them officially as CIs required a lot of time and effort. In June 2005, after studying the necessity of CIs and adjusting it to the needs of the hospital, we submitted CIs to each division through top-down management. The Medical Information Management Division conducted hearings with each division. Information regarding CIs was provided and manageable data was introduced by setting definitions and goals for each CI. In order to decrease labor for the collection and analysis of data and to improve the efficiency in calculating CIs, electronic medical chart functions and the DWH (data warehouse) system were introduced. Since December 2006, 56 CIs are periodically calculated and this led to an increase of the use of electronic medical chart terminals by the staff of our hospital. Furthermore, some evidences of the process index, that might have a major impact on the outcome index of the hospital, have been observed.