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Data Collection Planning

Data is essential to understand if the changes that we make are resulting in improvement. To begin, you must determine your data collection plan. Quality improvement data is often gathered on a set of measures or family of measures which include the following: outcome measures to track progress toward the aim or end goal of the project; process measures to monitor key steps influencing the outcome; and balancing measures to ensure improvements do not create unintended negative effects within your system. Data collection can start as simple count data collection and over time become more complex as you learn more about the project and have a better understanding of your family of measures.

Key Steps

  • Understand both your current state and project aim/goal
  • Determine your family of measures (outcome, process, and balancing measures)
  • Consider potential sources and how you will regularly obtain your data
  • Develop a method to track your data over time (i.e. excel)

Resources to Get Started

Read
  • 鈥� This brief article provides an overview for why data collection and measure are essential for QI projects and tips for getting started.
  • 鈥� The brief article from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) provides tips on how to determine your family of measures.
  • 鈥� This article from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Integration Academy outlines tips and resources to plan for data collection.
  • EPIC Reporting Manual鈥� This manual provides detailed info on how to protect Patient Health Information (PHI) on pages 1, 9-10)
Use
  • Measure Tracking Sheet 鈥� Simple manual data collection is a great way to get started with collecting your data. This template includes areas for you to count data for your outcome and process measures.

Related QI Concepts

  • Data Visualization & Analysis 鈥� Once you have collected your data, it is important to develop a way to display and analyze this information. It is the next step to determine whether your work is resulting improvement.
  • Driver Diagram 鈥� This tool helps identify 鈥渄rivers鈥� or key influences that can impact your project. The driver diagram can help identify potential family of measures.
  • Institutional Review Board (IRB) 鈥� In healthcare QI project, you may often rely on collecting patient-related data. For that reason, you will likely need to submit your project through IRB.
  • Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) 鈥� PDSAs are the change ideas that drive QI projects and will be one of the data points that you will need to collect over time.