How Kaiser Permanente Uses Video Ethnography Of Patients For Quality Improvement, Such As In Shaping Better Care Transitions

Abstract

Keeping patients and caregivers at the center of quality improvement is critical. Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute adapted video ethnography to achieve this aim, using video to capture interviews with—and observations of—patients and caregivers, identify patient-centered improvement opportunities, and communicate them effectively to clinical and administrative leaders and front-line staff. This method is particularly effective for helping understand the needs of frail elders, patients nearing the end of life, those with multiple chronic conditions, and other vulnerable people who are not well represented in focus groups and patient advisory councils. As part of an initiative to improve care transitions for elders with heart failure, video ethnography contributed to greatly reduced thirty-day hospital readmission rates, helping reduce readmissions at one medical center from 13.6 percent to 9 percent in six months. It also helped improve the reliability of the readmissions reduction program. When embedded within an established quality improvement framework, video ethnography can be an effective tool for innovating new solutions, improving existing processes, and spreading knowledge about how best to meet patient needs.