Hospital Management Framework/Best Practice Evaluation and Replicability Study in China

To evaluate selected hospitals that have undergone patient-centered quality improvement initiatives and produce case study of their best practices according to Six Domains of Health Care Quality (by AHRQ) and various scientific tools/models/areas of excellence categories, the study is aimed to provide insight and guidance to the establishment of hospital management framework and capability building for hospital administrators. The first selected pilot project is Taizhou Enze medical center in Zhejiang Province with more than 10-year experience in hospital quality improvement. Tools and methodologies utilized by Enze included: 6 Sigma, Lean, PDCA, 3A-one pager, Change Management, QCC, etc. The main task in this pilot project is to formulate case studies (best practice) under a replicable Chinese Public Hospital Management Capability Framework. The recipients of this framework and best practices may include: Gaoping Medical Center and several county level hospitals (will be updated through our quarterly newsletter).

Zhejiang Taizhou Hospital, one of the Enze subsidiary hospitals, was awarded the 18th China Quality Award on August 28, 2019. It is the first and only hospital to receive the China Quality Award so far. Enze Medical Center was established in 1901, it is the largest public non-profit healthcare provider in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. In 2018, Enze Hospital Group had 3,300 beds over 4 facilities, with 4.31 million outpatient visits, 172,000 discharged patients, and 71,000 surgical cases.

• Goal 1:To evaluate selected hospitals that have undergone patient centered quality improvement initiatives and produce case studies of their best practices according to the seven domains of the Baldrige Framework.

• Goal 2: To conduct replicability study of best practices to ensure such practice can be successfully replicated at other similar hospitals.

• Key Steps of this pilot project in 2019 are as follows:

  1. Use the Baldrige model to evaluate selected hospitals for strength and weaknesses (Completed);

  2. Identify strong areas and supporting evidence to qualify as best practice cases (Completed);

  3. Review the cases with an expert panel to identify replicable elements that allow best practices to be implemented at other hospitals of its type (In progress);

  4. Share the process and cases at relevant healthcare conferences to promote evidence-based hospital management best practices.