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Impact of Quality Assessment on Clinical Practice, Kaiser Permanente

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Quality Spine Care

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Abstract

Quality assessment is an important way to measure care and to effect change. The methods used vary from hospital to hospital and from small group practices to large healthcare practices like Kaiser Permanente (KP). Kaiser Permanente is an integrated healthcare delivery system that provides inpatient and outpatient care and is currently the largest managed care organization in the United States covering over 11.8 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. With the introduction of the electronic health record (EHR) system in 2006, KP has been able to leverage the data collected to develop unique methods for assessing the quality of our clinical practices. For spinal care, KP has developed the KP spine registry which collects data on patient safety, spinal implant performance, and clinical outcomes. Added information on cost-effectiveness adds value to our quality measures. The most critical components after determining quality, however, is to implement a dynamic feedback mechanism in which changes in clinical practices can occur and can be shared throughout the entire organization. This chapter explores the different methods used by Kaiser Permanente to assess the quality of our spine care and implement changes in our clinical practices.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurosurgery, The Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Kern H. Guppy

  2. Surgical Outcomes and Analysis, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, San Diego, CA, USA

    Jessica Harris

  3. Orthopedics-Spine, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Downey, CA, USA

    Johannes A. Bernbeck

  4. Neurosurgery, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Harsimran S. Brara

Authors
  1. Kern H. Guppy
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  2. Jessica Harris
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  3. Johannes A. Bernbeck
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  4. Harsimran S. Brara
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kern H. Guppy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    John Ratliff

  2. Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA

    Todd J. Albert

  3. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Joseph Cheng

  4. Atlantic Neurosurgical Specialists, Morristown, NJ, USA

    Jack Knightly

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Guppy, K.H., Harris, J., Bernbeck, J.A., Brara, H.S. (2019). Impact of Quality Assessment on Clinical Practice, Kaiser Permanente. In: Ratliff, J., Albert, T., Cheng, J., Knightly, J. (eds) Quality Spine Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97990-8_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97990-8_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97989-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97990-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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