title: Integrating baseline health status data collection into the process of care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health status data are an increasingly important component of outcomes assessment and can be used to facilitate quality assessment and improvement efforts. An enormous challenge to the use of health status data among hospitalized patients, however, is collecting baseline data at the time of treatment, an essential component for risk-adjusting subsequent outcomes. The Mid America Heart Institute of Saint Luke's Hospital (Kansas City, Mo), attempted to integrate the collection of health status assessments within the process of performing coronary revascularization.
  The data collection strategy was developed for each admission portalelective outpatients (admissions for same-day procedures), inpatients, and emergent cases. Health status data were collected on all patients with coronary artery disease who were receiving a percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass graft with no disruption to physician scheduling or nursing staff.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In general, patients were agreeable to completing the health status survey. Despite initial efforts to educate the hospital staff about the goal and purpose of health status assessment, staff members who were unaware of the uses of these data seemed to minimize their value. Providing examples of how to use these data relative to the staff member's specific occupational role facilitated buy-in for this project.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After the pilot study, which lasted until June 1999, data were continually collected for 18 months, through August 2000, even with the cessation of external grant funding for this project. Baseline data collection finally stopped, primarily because of a failure to accommodate data collection into the routine flow of patient care by existing nursing staff.
authors: Section of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri, USA. spertusj@umkc.edu
authors: J A
authors: JA
authors: Spertus
authors: B D
authors: BD
authors: Bliven
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Farner
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Gillen
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Hewitt
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Jones
authors: B D
authors: BD
authors: McCallister
mesh_terms: D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002300:Cardiac Care Facilities / Q000592:standards*; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008923:Missouri / Q000453:epidemiology; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D018511:Systems Integration