I’ve covered enough healthcare transformation stories to know that measurement usually sounds like progress. But CMO editor Chris Cheney’s latest HealthLeaders cover story raises a more uncomfortable question: What happens when the system built to improve quality starts competing with the work of actually delivering care?
For two decades, hospitals have been rewarded for reporting, documenting, and scoring well on quality measures. That work has helped improve safety and standardize care. But as Chris reports, many clinical leaders now believe the quality movement has reached a tipping point, where the burden of measurement may be pulling time, attention, and resources away from patients.
The story features insights from Read Pierce, MD, CMO of Denver Health; Bethany Casagranda, DO, MBA, CMO of Allegheny Health Network and President of Allegheny Clinic; Ghazala Sharieff, MD, MBA, Corporate Executive Senior Vice President and Chief Medical and Operations Officer for Acute Care at Scripps Health; and Thomas Balcezak, MD, MPH, Chief Clinical Officer at Yale New Haven Health.
Together, they lay out a hard truth: hospitals may be tracking more data than ever, but that doesn’t always mean they are learning more about how to improve care.