Hospitalwide monitoring of infection control.

Responsibility for infection control lies with all hospital departments in proportion to patient contact share. The primary focus in the development of a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) team concept was determined by the concern over increased surgical wound infections at Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital, San Antonio, Texas, during the previous year. Concerns over increased morbidity and mortality and extended lengths of stay created a major impetus to implement phase II of the hospitalwide monitoring of infection control at the facility. The implementation of this hospitalwide monitor illustrates the diversity of ways in which employees are empowered, encouraged, and expected to become involved in daily implementation of CQI.

Communication of the monitoring and evaluation process through the use of storyboards and story notebooks.

In preparation for the 1993 Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) survey, Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital Nursing Service was faced with determining the best approach to presenting their Total Quality Improvement/Total Quality Management (TQI/TQM) process. Nursing Service management and staff, Quality Improvement Clinicians, and medical staff used the Storyboard concept and the accompanying Story Notebooks to organize and to communicate their TQI/TQM process and findings. This concept was extremely beneficial, enabling staff to successfully present the multidisciplinary TQI/TQM data to the JCAHO surveyors.