RESOURCES

Syntro can help you--from start to finish or any point in between--strengthen your quality improvement studies and projects. Through our experience in the "trenches," as surveyors, and helping many clients, we understand study design and what the accrediting and regulatory bodies are looking for. We have special resources you may need to prepare a study protocol, complete study elements, or write the final report. Services that we have available to our clients include:

Selecting Improvement Priorities
Organizations can't fix all problems at once. What clinical or service area needs improvement? Where are problems occurring (e.g., low adolescent immunizations rates, members unable to access care, customer service telephones not being answered in a timely manner)? What is your monitoring data telling you? What monitors are important to your customers (members, purchasers, providers)?

Syntro can help you use performance data to select improvement priorities. If you have existing improvement activities, our experienced consultants help you focus on those that best meet your organization's needs and the applicable standards or regulations.

Developing Study Rationale or Problem Statement
The first step in study design is developing a study question or problem statement. After you identify your organization's improvement priorities, Syntro can help you frame the study rationale. Elements of the study question or problem statement include: What? Who? When? Why? After developing a study rationale, the organization can move to select study measures.

Selecting Quantifiable Measures
Your organization can choose one or more measures for each study. You may want to select existing quantifiable measures (such as HEDIS or Oryx) to answer your study question and measure improvement performance or design your own measures. Syntro can assist in selecting measures and defining the denominator and numerator for each measure.

Identifying Goals or Benchmarks
For each quantifiable measure, an organization must have a goal or benchmark for comparison. A "benchmark" is the industry's best practice while a "goal" is a desired level of achievement. Syntro consultants can help determine when and which benchmark or goal is best suited for a measure.

Sampling
When studies use administrative data, organizations can use the full population. In this case, no sample is selected. However, if your organization is going to develop a medical record review or survey to collect data, sampling is necessary because studying the full population is too time- and resource-intensive. Syntro consultants can take the guesswork out of determining the sample size. We can work with you to determine desired level of confidence, the statistical power, margin of error and oversample rate.

Designing Data Collection Tools
Syntro can help you design survey and medical record abstraction tools that meet the scientific rigor required by accrediting and regulatory bodies. Syntro can help you develop a survey protocol to outline the elements of your survey. This protocol can be presented to accrediting and regulatory bodies.

Managing Data Collection Activities
Do you need assistance in monitoring data collection vendors or internal staff to meet study timeframes? Syntro consultants have experience in data collection management.

Developing Data Analysis Plans
Prior to completing a study, organizations need to develop a data analysis plan. By developing a plan, Syntro can work with you to determine whether the measures and data collection tools will provide the information needed to demonstrate clinical or service improvement. Taking the time to develop a data analysis plan when designing your study will ensure that the data you collect will answer your study question.

Perform Statistical Analysis
Syntro provides a broad range of statistical services. We can train your staff to perform simple data analysis or analyze and interpret the results for you.

Syntro can work with your internal or contract statisticians, providing insight and guidance on accreditation and regulatory requirements, thus producing more useful effective results.

Barrier Analysis Sessions
Using our barrier analysis model, Syntro facilitates a multidisciplinary analysis of root causes and barriers to optimal performance. We help you identify the real causes. Our model meets all accreditation and regulatory requirements for qualitative analysis and measurement.

Develop Action Plans for Removing Barriers
After we help you identify barriers, Syntro assists in developing action plans targeting root causes. This data-driven, evidence-based process helps you implement focused actions designed to improve performance.

Reporting and Showcasing Improvement Efforts
Syntro helps you showcase your improvement efforts by guiding and coaching your staff in documenting improvement activities and presenting your results with graphics. If you need additional resources, Syntro staff can write the documentation and prepare graphics for you.