Collaborative quality improvement in the cardiac intensive care unit: development of the Paediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4)

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Michael Gaies, University of Michigan; David S. Cooper, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; Sarah Tabbutt, Benioff Children’s Hospital; Steven M. Schwartz, University of Toronto; Nancy Ghanayem, Medical College of Wisconsin; Nikhil Chanani, Emory University; John M. Costello, Northwestern University; Ravi R. Thiagarajan, Harvard University; Peter C. Laussen, University of Toronto; Lara S. Shekerdemian, Texas Children’s Hospital; Janet E. Donohue, University of Michigan; Gina M. Willis, University of Michigan; J. William Gaynor, University of Pennsylvania; Jeffrey P. Jacobs, Johns Hopkins University; Richard G. Ohye, University of Michigan; John R. Charpie, University of Michigan; Sara K. Pasquali, University of Michigan; Mark A. Scheurer, Medical University of South Carolina
• Language: English
• Date: 2015-06-01
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP): STM Journals
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © Cambridge University Press 2014.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1047951114001450
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Cardiology in the Young
• ISSN: 1047-9511
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 5
• Start Page: 951
• End Page: 957
• Grant/Funding Information: Michael Gaies is supported by a career development award from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K08-HL116639).
• Keywords: Life Sciences & Biomedicine; cardiac surgery; Cardiovascular System & Cardiology; Science & Technology; Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems; OPERATIONS; Critical care; paediatric; OUTCOMES; SURGERY; quality improvement; Pediatrics; DEATH
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

Despite many advances in recent years for patients with critical paediatric and congenital cardiac disease, significant variation in outcomes remains across hospitals. Collaborative quality improvement has enhanced the quality and value of health care across specialties, partly by determining the reasons for variation and targeting strategies to reduce it. Developing an infrastructure for collaborative quality improvement in paediatric cardiac critical care holds promise for developing benchmarks of quality, to reduce preventable mortality and morbidity, optimise the long-term health of patients with critical congenital cardiovascular disease, and reduce unnecessary resource utilisation in the cardiac intensive care unit environment. The Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4) has been modelled after successful collaborative quality improvement initiatives, and is positioned to provide the data platform necessary to realise these objectives. We describe the development of PC4 including the philosophical, organisational, and infrastructural components that will facilitate collaborative quality improvement in paediatric cardiac critical care.