Quality Initiative Using Theory of Change and Visual Analytics to Improve Controlled Substance Documentation Discrepancies in the Operating Room.

Background: Discrepancies in controlled substance documentation are common and can lead to legal and regulatory repercussions. We introduced a visual analytics dashboard to assist in a quality improvement project to reduce the discrepancies in controlled substance documentation in the operating room (OR) of our free-standing pediatric hospital.

Methods: Visual analytics were applied to collected documentation discrepancy audit data and were used to track progress of the project, to motivate the OR team, and in analyzing where further improvements could be made. This was part of a seven-step improvement plan based on the Theory of Change with a logic model framework approach.

Results: The introduction of the visual analytics dashboard contributed a 24% improvement in controlled substance documentation discrepancy. The project overall reduced documentation errors by 71% over the studied period.

Conclusion: We used visual analytics to simultaneously analyze, monitor, and interpret vast amounts of data and present them in an appealing format. In conjunction with quality-improvement principles, this led to a significant improvement in controlled substance documentation discrepancies.