Using Data to Improve Quality

Performance data should be shared widely with clinic staff at all levels and across all disciplines. 

Dissemination strategies include adding data to existing quality reports or dashboards, reporting out during staff meetings or team huddles, sharing dashboards and tables via email, and posting dashboards and charts in staff areas. Staff at all levels can be offered opportunities to provide feedback about potential drivers of current performance and potential strategies for improvement.220 Broad dissemination provides an opportunity for service sites to communicate with a larger audience about their vision for high-quality SRH care and foster buy-in for QI efforts.

Service sites can begin to identify opportunities for improving care quality once they have successfully incorporated the performance measures into their data review process. Similarly, as to the process of selecting measures, effective QI strategies are equity focused and person-centered, integrate consideration of historical and ongoing harms, and meaningfully address inequities. When selecting which intervention(s) to prioritize, service sites should solicit meaningful participation from internal partners about feasibility and potential impact. The broader the group of partners, the greater the likelihood of uncovering experiential knowledge that can complement or inform QI activities. Examples of steps that may improve quality of SRH care include developing job aids, providing equity-focused and task-specific training for providers, streamlining health center workflow, conducting more patient and community education, and strengthening relationships with referral sites through formal memoranda of understanding.221

Additional SRH-focused quality improvement resources are listed below:

• The New York Department of Health’s guide for Engaging Primary Care Providers in Chlamydia Screening Quality Improvement, details the approach and highlights key successes of a quality improvement framework for the delivery of sexual health services by pediatric primary care providers.222
   
• The Texas Department of State Health Services website highlights a range of Ryan White Program clinical quality management resources, including tools and a leadership training toolkit.223
   
• The RHNTC has several resources available to support performance improvement on the contraceptive care measures, including a change package outlining the rationale, improvement strategies, and Title X success stories and a toolkit to support health care organizations in ensuring access to the full range of contraceptive methods for patients.