Managing What Is Measured: A Rural Hospital's Experience in Reducing Patient Harm

Abstract

Effecting improvement in the small, rural hospital setting is often challenging. Harris Regional Hospital (HRH) is a small, acute care hospital in rural western North Carolina acquired by Duke LifePoint Healthcare in August, 2014. Since that time, HRH has been on a quality journey characterized by a data-driven approach to reducing patient harm events. Using a framework that comprised leadership, performance improvement, and cultural development to cultivate an environment of mutual respect and trust, HRH has demonstrated sustained improvement in patient harm events over a 29-month period from January 2015 to June 2017. The purpose of this article is to provide examples of scalable, effective tactics contributing to quality improvement in the rural hospital environment.