title: The process of performance improvement: preserving myocardial function.
abstract: In today's healthcare environment, the continual assessment of processes is necessary to provide the best patient care. Ongoing process improvement also is helpful in organizations' remaining both competitive and fiscally viable. Because of the increasing concern about mortality rates from acute myocardial infarction (AMI), the Johnson City Medical Center chose to evaluate the care of patients with AMI. This article describes the first of three phases of the hospital's efforts to examine and improve the process of caring for patients with AMI to achieve positive patient outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Critical Care, Emergency Services, Wings Air Rescue for Mountain States Health Alliance, Johnson City, TN, USA. washingtongt@msha.com
authors.forename: G T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Washington
mesh_terms: D019091:Critical Pathways; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006801:Humans; D008332:Management Quality Circles; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016730:Program Development; D013714:Tennessee; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000592:standards*