ACS Quality Framework

Brief:

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) Quality Improvement Programs require participating hospitals to complete quality improvement programs to maintain their accreditation status. The ACS collects reports of more than 3,500 improvement efforts annually. To better support hospitals and evaluate whether they are meeting the required standards, the American College of Surgeons developed a framework of criteria to outline the components of a successful project.

Our team was asked to create a learning experience to help users better understand the Framework. Upon reviewing the work the team had done so far, I found that the criteria were not clear enough to support evaluation efforts or to be used as a guide for beginner teams.

Collaborators:

• Senior Manager of Quality Resource Development
• Manager of Clinical Quality Resources
• Quality Resource Specialist
• Instructional Design Manager
• Graphic Designer

The Solution:

Before creating a digital learning experience, I wanted to make sure there was a solid foundation to build on. The solution I designed and developed included:

• Measurable, specific, complete criteria: my skills in writing learning objectives allowed me to help the project team with improving the criteria so they could be used for formal evaluation
• Examples and nonexamples: I used my knowledge of quality improvement resources to find examples and nonexamples to elaborate on the meaning of each criterion.
• Organizational process assets: I also developed a communication plan, data plan, and project charter so that quality improvement teams did not need to “reinvent the wheel.”

Results:

The Quality Framework is being used to evaluate quality efforts in hundreds of hospitals and generate research that will guide the field of continuous quality improvement. It’s also being used to standardize the format of case studies in the ACS Quality Improvement Case Study Repository.

You can download the Quality Improvement Framework and tools here.