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What is Quality?

IN THIS SECTION

We know that when your child is receiving medical care you want the peace of mind of knowing your child’s care is exceptional, reliable and provided by expert clinicians. That’s why CHOC has worked hard to build a culture of safety, quality and collaboration. We’re proud to have cultivated an environment that not only prioritizes safety, but also emphasizes sharing and openness so that we can all learn from best practices. All our quality efforts influence one or more of the six “Domains of Quality” as defined by the Institute of Medicine:

  • Safe: Avoiding harm to patients from the care that is intended to help them.
  • Effective: Providing services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit and refraining from providing services to those not likely to benefit (avoiding underuse and misuse, respectively).
  • Patient-centered: Providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.
  • Timely: Reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care.
  • Efficient: Avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas and energy.
  • Equitable: Providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and socioeconomic status.

Our Results

Patient Safety

CHOC’s efforts to keep your children safe include excellent hand hygiene practices and preventing any harmful events that could occur during a hospitalization, surgery, or invasive procedure. These include:
  • Adverse Drug Events,
    • An injury resulting from medical intervention related to a drug
  • Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections,
    • A urine infection and your child has a urinary catheter
  • Catheter-Associated Bloodstream Infections,
    • A blood infection and your child has a central line catheter
  • Falls,
  • Peripheral IV Infiltrate/Extravasation,
    • Fluid leaks into the surrounding tissue outside of the vein if your child has an IV
  • Pressure Injuries,
  • Surgical Site Infections,
    • An infection after a surgery/procedure
  • Unplanned Extubations
    • If your child has a tube and mechanical device to help them breathe and it comes out.
CHOC actively tracks and strives to decrease these and additional harmful events. *Adverse Drug Events Level F-I (NCCMERP Scale)
This graph shows the number of Adverse Drug Events per 1,000 patient days. A patient day represents a single day of care provided to a single patient within CHOC Orange hospital. This graph shows the number of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit per 1,000 catheter days. Each day the patient has a catheter in place counts as one catheter day. *Surgical Site Infections for cardiac, neurology shunt, and spinal fusion surgeries. This graph shows the number of patients who developed an infection following one of these three surgeries per 100 surgeries. This graph shows the percentage of observed times hand hygiene is properly performed. This includes before and after touching a patient, before and after procedure, after bodily fluid exposure, and after touching a patient’s surroundings. *Events include; Adverse Drug Events, Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections, Catheter-Associated Bloodstream Infections, Falls (moderate or greater injury), Pressure Injuries (stages 3, 4, & unstageable), Surgical Site Infections (cardiac, neurology shunt, & spinal fusion surgeries), or Unplanned Extubations.
This graph shows the number of events per 1,000 patient days. A patient day represents a single day of care provided to a single patient within CHOC Mission hospital.

Patient Experience

Our team is dedicated to providing world-class care, and the best CHOC experience for our patients and their families. As partners in care, we regularly reach out to our families after a visit or hospitalization and ask them to respond to a survey that uses a nationally recognized vendor, NRC Health. The patient experience scores, ratings and feedback help us improve patient experience, as well as celebrate our successes and recognize staff. Our goal is to provide you or prospective patients and families with more objective and meaningful information into the patient and family experience. The data the below graphs displays the overall rating of a visit, sometimes referred to as “top box scores.” Responses for this question are measured on a scale of zero to 10, with 9 and 10 being the “top box”, or best hospital visit possible. NRC Health provides us with national pediatric comparative benchmarks. This graph shows the percentage patients and families who score CHOC’s Primary Care Network visits as a score of 9 or 10 out of 10 on patient experience surveys. This graph shows the percentage patients and families who score CHOC Orange’s Specialty Clinic visits as a score of 9 or 10 out of 10 on patient experience surveys.

We need your help to ensure that every patient in our care is kept safe.

Mom looking down at infant she is holding.

CHOC actively advocates that patients and parents be part of the safety team, wherever they interact in our network of pediatric providers or hospitals. All can help participate by:

  • Being an advocate for yourself/your child.
  • Sharing unique things about yourself/your child with caregivers.
  • Washing your hands and ensure they wash, too. Don’t be afraid to remind any staff about washing their hands before working with you.
  • Staying clean and dry. If your child has an intravenous catheter or wound, keep the skin around the dressing clean and dry and let your caregiver know if it gets wet or loose.
  • Watching for red or irritated skin and notify your child’s caregivers if you notice anything new.
  • Know and ask any questions about the medications your child is receiving.
  • Being prepared when going home or after your visit. Make sure you know what medications and/or treatments your child needs.
  • Asking what you should watch for that will require a call to a healthcare provider to ask questions. And make sure you have all needed phone numbers easily available.