Development of a computerized database for a nursing quality management program

There has been little study on how nurse managers collect, store, process and retrieve quality management data, yet nearly every nursing department has an existing program to provide these functions. We investigated our current paper-based system and found several deficiencies. Guided by structured interviews. task analysis, and focus groups we developed a networked computerized quality management database to provide more timely data reporting and consistency of analysis. This paper describes the development and implementation of the system with discussion on how it will be evaluated in the future.