Alison Amos, UNC Healthcare
In 2012, the Department of Radiation Oncology at UNC-Chapel Hill began developing infrastructure for continuous quality improvement through the GoodCatch & A3 Program. GoodCatch is an event learning system supported by home-grown software, and A3 refers to a problem-solving improvement methodology based on A3 Thinking and the scientific method. The program is supported by leadership and involves both management and frontline staff. Since beginning in Radiation Oncology in 2012, the program has been implemented in 16 additional UNC-affiliated outpatient oncology clinics. In each area implemented, good catches are submitted online by any member of the staff at any time. In real time, a “dispatcher” routes the good catch to an appropriate “champion”. A trained, multi-disciplinary committee made up of these “champions” meets regularly to review each good catch and discuss any open A3 or other projects. Each committee has at least one representative from all major clinic teams. Program stats from across all clinics include over 4,000 good catches, over 85 A3 projects completed, over 350 staff trained in A3 Thinking and consistent scoring above the 90th percentile on the Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey. In addition to being coaches for this program in the 17 oncology clinics, our team is also conducting research on implementation science around: 1) Program Health Report – how is the Good Catch & A3 Program working in your clinic? 2) A3 Quality Assessment Rubric – what does a high quality A3 project look like? 3) Measuring Lean Thinking in Healthcare Settings