Patient Flow Sheets

• Creating a measurement plan
• Mini-surveys
• Third next available appointment
• Defect check sheets
• Patient flow sheets
• Sampling plan

Patient flow sheets are an important tool for both collecting data on quality and supporting QI.  In general, different flow sheets exist for different conditions and most follow a tabular format where each column represents time and each row represents some process that should be done periodically or some desired outcome. 

Flow sheets by themselves can support QI by reminding the care provider at each encounter of what needs to be done.  However, flow sheets are most useful when the information in the sheet is routinely entered into an electronic patient registry.  Once in a registry, QI teams can generate run charts showing quality improvement over time, or bar charts comparing quality between different sites or patient sub-groups.  Some flow sheets track reasons why a process wasn’t carried out (e.g. allergy, other contraindication, cost, etc.).  If so, then QI teams can generate Pareto charts with this data. 

Flow sheets exist for chronic disease management in primary care, and specialized settings (e.g. ICUs).  Click below for links to commonly used flow sheets.

For Diabetes:
http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/gpac/flow_sheets.html
http://www.gacguidelines.ca/index.cfm?ACT
http://www.hqc.sk.ca/portal.jsp?lFFFVWRuBfJLfYSWZpG40zBIzBf0QfLQkUwK4QBZaJtahzQVEyd/tFVvI5thiwzu

For Asthma:
www.indianacdmprogram.com/Provider/PDF/Asthma/108 Asthma Flow Sheet.pdf
www.americanhealthways.com/regence/PDFs/Asthma/AsthmaFlowsheet.pdf
www.healthplus.com/pdfs/provider/asthmaflowsheet.pdf
http://www.hqc.sk.ca/download.jsp?lFFFVWRuBfJLfYSWZpG40zBIzBf0QfLQkUwK4QBZaJtF31f8tC79Wr6gwaBuNH9X

For CHF:
http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/gpac/flow_sheets.html

For Coronary Artery Disease:
http://www.hqc.sk.ca/portal.jsp?lFFFVWRuBfJLfYSWZpG40zBIzBf0QfLQkUwK4QBZaJtahzQVEyd/tFVvI5thiwzu


For Hypertension:
http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/gpac/flow_sheets.html