The problem with using readily available, convenient data is that the data usually do a poor job of answering the
questions necessary to access performance. Ten years ago this "good enough" approach to data collection might have
been acceptable. Today, however, because of the increasing demand to demonstrate effectiveness of care and
efficiency of healthcare processes, this mind set is not acceptable. Performance quality and excellence do not occur
because organizations do what they have always done or what is convenient. Most healthcare observers agree that:

For example, if you are using a survey to gather patient satisfaction feedback by email, you would not send a survey to ever y patient. You would start by sending surveys to roughly 50 percent of the patients and see how many are returned. This limited survey allows you to determine the response rate. Assume that
25 percent of these patients return the surveys.
The next task is to determine how representative of the total population these respondents are. To test this question, you need to develop a profile of the total population. Typically, this profile is based on standard demographics such as gender, age, type of visit, payer class, and whether the respondent is a new or returning patient. If the distribution of these characteristics in the sample is similar (within 5 percent) to that found in the total population, you can be comfort able that your sample is reasonably representative of the population. If the characteristics of the sample and the population show considerable variation, however, you should adjust your sampling plan.
This example clarifies that:

The primary benefit of adopting a countrywide or global uniform set of discharge data is to:

The syndrome of stockpiling is proven to be ineffective and inefficient. It also creates quality issues. This approach provides little value to the data collection effort and is one of the biggest mistake quality improvement teams make.
Rather than provide a rich source of information, this approach unnecessarily derives up:

The separate services of Pharmacy and Nursing are having difficulty developing an action plan for medication errors.
Pharmacy Services states that Nursing Services causes the majority of the problems related to errors, while Nursing
Services states the opposite. The quality professional's role in resolving this problem is to: