VALUE IMPROVEMENT LEADERS

TOPIC #15

624 words | 4 minutes to read

BASELINE ANALYSIS AND INVESTIGATION

PRINCIPLE Follow your methodology. Baseline Analysis and Investigation is necessary. TOOLS •  Value Summary 2.0 • Sundry APPLICATION Let the value summary help you “act your way into thinking” about value improvement.

In an earlier article I made the case for following a proven, structured improvement methodology to promote long-term sustainability; improvement that sticks . Other articles highlight tools to engage in data-driven decision making. But the time seems right to tie that principle and those tools together.

Problems Prevented by Baseline Analysis and Investigation Recall from the methodology article :

We often address the Baseline Analysis and Investigation phases in the same breath because momentum typically causes them to overlap, and that’s okay, perhaps even preferred. It’s not all that important to know which phase you’re in. To emphasize this point, they share space on the value summary.

Baseline Analysis at a Minimum Baseline analysis confirms the (perceived) problem your team is planning to fix by defining the current state quantitatively and qualitatively. (Once in a while, it reveals that your problem isn’t such a big deal and you can either redirect the effort or close it with the gating process.) At an extreme minimum, your baseline analysis could be considered done when you’ve filled in all the blanks in your SMART goals (but those blanks are filled with simplistic and likely misleading means). You’ll want to supplement your means with histograms, run charts, and perhaps box & whisker plots. And a current state process map is the ultimate qualitative tool to allow a team to “see” the process. How do you know when your Investigation is done? Investigation is the grey zone between baseline analysis and improvement design . If you’re at the point of asking, “What should we do about it?” you’ve stepped out of investigation into improvement design . This is a good time to check-in with the value summary.

The baseline analysis and investigation section of the value summary is divided into four sub-sections:  Examine and document Analyze Benchmark Summary

Recall, the value summary helps teams act their way into thinking. It does so with suggested baseline analysis and investigation tools in convenient drop-downs in each sub-section. When you see an item on the list that your team did, you select it and briefly explain how it impacted your project.

For items you haven’t done, ask yourself (or your coach) if they would add value. Keep in mind analysis isn’t free. Be clear in your mind about how each additional analysis will move the project forward. If it’s merely interesting, it’s probably a waste of time. This may be a good juncture in your project to remind the team of one of our favorite clichés: Perfect is the enemy of great. This is true of data and analyses. The relevant question is, do you have enough insights to develop data-driven interventions? On the other end of the scale, if you’ve done nothing on these lists, it’s likely you’ve shortchanged the methodology (and your improvement effort) and jumped to solutions.

Visit Your Value Summary Nothing additional to watch or read right now, but if the time is right, click through the baseline analysis and investigation section of your value summary. Update it with analytical items you have already finished, comment on what you learned, and consider attaching any evidentiary documents.

LINKS Quickly locate all course videos, slides, and previous emails here .

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Accelerate | University of Utah | healthsciences.utah.edu/accelerate Questions? Email:  kim.mahoney@hsc.utah.edu

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