Eve Kimball, MD
Quality and value of patient care are today’s buzz words. To Eve Kimball, MD, building dynamic, effective health care teams is the key to bringing a good balance of quality and value to her pediatric practice.
Dr. Kimball, who has four decades of experience in practice management, quality improvement, and leadership, has learned that a room charged with empowered and enthusiastic staff is the best tool to safeguard her pediatric patients’ fragile care. In her practice, they call it a Kare Improvement Team (KIT), composed of staff members from every level and department.
Anyone who’s in a room with Dr. Kimball will tell you that she’s a pragmatic and dedicated leader, who inspires everyone to share their ideas. She makes her staff feel like every opinion and idea is valuable, regardless of their title.
There are no “bad” ideas at KIT team meetings. KIT team members freely speak their minds about how they think care can be improved, from the tiniest front-desk detail to the most global population health issues.
Meeting weekly, the 11 KIT members discuss everything from patient scheduling to how immunization records are entered into the system to ideas for rewarding parents who bring their kids to appointments on time.
“What really works is to have mini-champions in each area so if a change is made, there is a champion to keep it going,” said Dr. Kimball.
But Dr. Kimball doesn’t stop at just the KIT Team. She also believes that frequent meetings of the entire staff are another key ingredient in building quality and value.
“This has worked out extremely well. It has improved staff enthusiasm and empowered staff to be involved,” said Dr. Kimball.
Dr. Kimball is exploring yet another step in team building by exploring dividing her practice into small groups for patient care. Each team would have at least one physician, one nurse practitioner, one front desk associate, and one member of the clinical floor staff. Patients would select a group, which would be identified by color, name, or other means so that patients and their families can tell quickly where they will go and who they will see at each visit. They are working on slowly phasing in the concept using a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) process to stay on top of needed critical changes.
Read more in the upcoming fall
PAMED Better Health Network™ eZine. Dr. Kimball talks with PAMED about her practice’s transition to electronic health records, how they collect and analyze data to improve patient care, as well as barriers they’ve overcome and lessons learned along the way.
Dr. Kimball is a pediatrician and founder of All About Children Pediatric Partners in West Reading. She is an active member of PAMED’s Physician Leadership Blueprint Quality Task Force. She has been a PAMED member since 1989.