Invited commentary: On influence and significance in quality improvement/process improvement studies

Excerpt

The manuscript “Emergency Department Length of Stay Following Discontinuation of Routine Oral Contrast Material” by Kim et al. [1] links radiology process improvements and key hospital quality metrics. In this case, it is the elimination of oral (PO) contrast prior to abdomen and pelvis CT and length of stay (LOS) in the Emergency department (ED) that are assessed. The authors show a nearly 20% reduction (from 13.3 to 10.7 h, p < 0.001) in ED LOS, with 15% of the change (13.3 h to 11.3 h) realized nine months before the authors’ intervention [1]. The change attributed to the intervention resulted in an additional 5% decrease in ED LOS (from 11.3 to 10.7 h, p = 0.052). The secondary outcome of turn-around time (TAT) from CT order to CT exam completion decreased over 20% (2.7 h to 2.1 h, p < 0.001) [1]. …