Mk. Suber et al., THE QUALITY INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PROGRAM DATABASE IN SOUTH-CAROLINA, The Joint Commission journal on quality improvement, 22(9), 1996, pp. 629-639
Background: The Quality Information Management (QIM) Program was initi
ated in 1987 on the basis of the decision of the South Carolina Hospit
al Association's Subcommittee on Quality Assurance to develop a statew
ide database that could provide member hospitals with comparative qual
ity indicator data. There are ten indicators for acute care and seven
for psychiatry and substance abuse. Thirty-seven acute care hospitals
participate in the QIM program, as do 7 specialty hospitals. For each
three-month period, participant hospitals complete a computerized soft
ware report from their data sources specifying summary-level and patie
nt-level data elements. Reporting of Data: Participating hospitals are
provided detailed, quantitative statistical reports to help them iden
tify variations for further investigation. Risk adjustment is accompli
shed by peer grouping. Each hospital receives summary data for the pee
r groups to which it is assigned. During the quarterly users group mee
tings, participants discuss their successes and failures in collecting
, reporting, and presenting indicator data. Discussion: Involvement in
the QIM program has educated participants in the use of comparative d
ata-bases for quality improvement activities. It is a challenge to hel
p providers and practitioners, in the face of increasing demands for d
issemination, become more comfortable with the release of data to the
public, while still preserving some degree of confidentiality.