Quality indicators and improvement measures for pediatric intensive care units

Abstract

Quality and patient safety is an integral part of pediatric critical care. Quality indicators (QIs) or key performance indicators (KPIs) are crucial to measure various aspects of quality and patient safety in pediatric intensive care. If we want a system which gives us reproducible results, it is crucial that various aspects of structure, process, and outcomes in that system are measurable and reproducible. It is crucial that the data used for measurements are accurate and they are analyzed using appropriate tools, and the KPIs/QIs calculated from the data are appropriately validated. These QIs/KPIs should be compared to the “accepted” international or national benchmarks on a periodic basis so that the team of doctors, nurses, and administrators are aware of the performance of their unit. In India, there are no national benchmarks available to compare the QIs/KPIs of our pediatric intensive care units (PICUs), and there is a dearth of such benchmarks for PICUs at international level too. In this review article, we aim to discuss the various aspects of data collection, data validation, and measurement of some important QIs of a PICU. We have also tried to gather some international benchmarks for some important QIs, which can be used by PICUs for their comparisons. Eventually, the best thing will be to develop a national database from various PICUs across India so that a national benchmark is created.