Patient Safety Blog

What to expect from a digital quality management system?

Written by Jens Hooiveld | January 15 2020

Not too long ago, healthcare incidents were reported on paper. Nowadays most care institutions use a digital quality management system, that becomes increasingly sophisticated as a result of technological developments.

Technological developments and new functionalities take place at a rapid pace. This blog describes what you can expect from a quality management system these days. We will elaborate on reporting via a mobile-first form and the integration of Business Intelligence-functionality into a quality management system.

Data collection

In order to collect as much data as possible, the threshold for reporting should be as low as possible, for anybody, irrespective of people’s location or whether or not they have an account. In addition to staff, patients, clients, family members and visitors should also have the possibility to file a report or submit suggestions for improvements. After all, they have proved invaluable in improving quality and safety of care. When it comes to safety, they can hold up a mirror to care professionals and teach us how to improve safety of care.

Mobile-first (reporting) form

TPSC Cloud™, The Patient Safety Company’s quality management system, includes a mobile-first form. Ease of use was a key priority at the time of designing the form.

Staff and clients can use their tablet or smartphone to report a complaint or incident, fill out a satisfaction or culture survey, submit a suggestion for improvement, etc.

The mobile-first form has the option that allows people to access the form without logging in/without having an account. This allows anyone, both inside and outside the organization, to report a complaint or incident, fill out a satisfaction or culture survey, submit a suggestion for improvement, etc.

The principle features of the mobile-first form:

  • The form is optimized for use on mobile phone or tablet. This means that the layout and content are adjusted to the screen size and performance of mobile devices with touch screen.
  • Developed for mobile phone, tablet and PC.
  • Mobile-first does not imply that the form is less user-friendly for use on PC or desktop. The mobile-first form can be used on any device that has a browser.
  • Instant validation: When answers are missing or don’t meet the requirements, this is communicated immediately.
  • Faster: By employing the latest programming techniques, the mobile-first form is loaded quickly.
  • Adding attachments: The mobile-first form uses existing functionalities on your telephone or tablet. A good example of this is the option to open your camera, take a photo or record a video and add it as an attachment..

From data to management information

Most quality management systems provide standard functionalities for incident reporting, analysis, and reporting. As a result, the quality management system contains a lot of valuable data. However, institutions that cannot gain insights from this data, miss opportunities to improve quality and safety.

Read more about how to organize incident management.

The story behind the data

Data only becomes valuable when you can recognize trends and anticipate. Forward-looking care institutions want to know the story behind their data, so they can approach quality and safety proactively instead of reactively. Besides, in doing so, the focus can be placed on prevention and the company’s learning ability.

Business Intelligence

In order to provide care institutions with a better and easier insight into the data that are stored in their quality management system, TPSC has enhanced its quality management platform with a strong Power BI integration, to add business Intelligence functionality. Over 500 care institutions worldwide can now enjoy the benefits of advanced business intelligence, state-of-the-art dashboards and visual analysis. 

TPSC Cloud™ and Power BI are a golden combination that allows care institutions to raise quality and safety to a higher level, because of:

  • The integration of Power BI in TPSC Cloud™ enables care institutions to make better and smarter use of the available data. Compare data, uncover connections and trends, zoom in on the smallest details and create advanced reports.
  • The creation of reports and dynamic dashboards with Power BI is so intuitive and easy that anyone can do it. Its user-friendliness and ease of use is in line with what The Patient Safety Company stands for as an organization.

If you want to receive more information about mobile data collection, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

Download the eBook: RFI Quality Management System

Do you want to learn more about how to write a Request for Information for a digital quality management system? Click here to download the eBook. You can use the eBook as a guide to writing your own RFI/RFP. You can also use it to assess if TPSC Cloud™ may be a suitable system for your own organization.