As our experience shows, standardizing PIVC insertion practices can help an organization achieve the Triple Aim by improving patient safety and satisfaction, while significantly decreasing hospital costs. More than five years after beginning this journey, we are sharing our experience as a road map for other facilities looking to improve their processes and quality of care for a procedure that impacts nearly every patient in the hospital.

The model presented herein admittedly constitutes a “respectable draft” only, setting out standards that push toward service excellence and focusing on the best interests of customers: the residents who’ve chosen a nursing facility to be their 24/7 care-based home for their remaining time in this world.

Much like the Institute of Medicine’s seminal report, To Err Is Human, which catalyzed healthcare around a systems approach to reducing preventable harm, the NQF report highlights actionable opportunities to scale efforts that have demonstrated the ability to improve quality, value, and safety.

Using feedback from patients, patient advocates, purchasers, public and private payers, clinicians, provider groups, measure developers and implementers, statisticians, and health services researchers, the group looked at how standard measures used in healthcare assessment can be combined in a system to improve health outcomes and drive high-value care.

As a testament to Kettering Health Network’s performance, all of its eligible hospitals have earned A’s from The Leapfrog Group in its rating of how well healthcare facilities protect patients from preventable medical errors, injuries, and infections.

On the sound foundation of evidence-based practice, healthcare providers rely on the most current and credible evidence to guide decisions; make diagnostic recommendations based on test results; prescribe effective medications; determine optimal care plans; and apply the best and safest practices for all manner of diseases and illnesses. However, EBP fidelity houses a set of glitches in an otherwise sound approach to qualitative practice.