Knowledge management a critical component of ongoing excellence; strong collection process, linkage to strategic mission imperative
Author: HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement

The old adage, "knowledge is power," has been used so often it's become a cliche. In the world of quality and process improvement, the phrase "knowledge is excellence" carries far more weight and truth.

Knowledge management, whether in the form of a learning organization (see Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement, October 2002, cover story) or some other approach, will hold the key to success for many health care organizations, quality professionals agree.

"For our approach to management, we feel that underlying all of the management processes is a good information system," asserts Mary C. Bostwick, health care specialist with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in Gaithersburg, MD. "What you choose to collect, how you collect it, how you ensure its accuracy, how you distribute it, and how you use it--all of these are components of knowledge management."

Patrice L. Spath, RHIT, a health care quality consultant based in Forest Grove, OR, agrees. "We have [access to] more information than ever before," she notes. "Just the task of selecting which information is most important to the success of your organization is a huge task. You have to weed through and select [the most important information]."

Effective knowledge management also entails helping leaders, managers, and supervisors become better educators, adds Jean Ann Larson, CHE, FHIMSS, chief learning officer at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI.