Quality Improvement Metrics Flashcards
7 cards from real HAC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Quality Improvement Metrics flashcards as text
Which measure type would 'percentage of diabetic patients with HbA1c < 8%' be classified as in quality reporting?
Answer: Outcome measure
HbA1c control reflects a clinical result achieved in the patient, making it an outcome measure rather than a measure of care delivery steps.
In healthcare quality improvement, what is a 'balancing measure' used for?
Answer: To detect unintended consequences of an improvement intervention
Balancing measures monitor whether changes designed to improve one aspect of care inadvertently create problems elsewhere in the system.
A quality analyst observes that a hospital's surgical site infection rate dropped from 3.2% to 1.8% after implementing a new bundle. What type of analysis would confirm this is a true improvement and not random variation?
Answer: Statistical process control analysis
Statistical process control (SPC) analysis uses control charts to determine whether observed changes represent true signal versus normal process variation.
Which national program publicly reports hospital quality data to enable consumer decision-making and provider accountability?
Answer: Hospital Compare
Hospital Compare, maintained by CMS, publicly reports quality measures across U.S. hospitals to support transparency and informed patient choice.
What does 'reliability' mean in the context of healthcare quality improvement measurement?
Answer: The consistency of producing the same result under the same conditions
Reliability refers to the reproducibility of a measure — that repeated measurement under the same conditions produces consistent results.
A hospital tracks its central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rate. Which denominator is standard for expressing this rate?
Answer: Per 1,000 central line days
CLABSI rates are expressed per 1,000 central line days to account for the actual duration of central line exposure, the primary risk factor.
Which improvement framework uses five phases — Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control — to reduce defects in healthcare processes?
Answer: DMAIC
DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) is the structured Six Sigma problem-solving framework used to reduce process variation and defects.