Assessing the effectiveness of leader rounding for high reliability: a quality improvement initiative

High reliability organizations in healthcare are responsible for consistently maintaining high levels of safety and quality over extended periods of time and across multiples service lines and settings. In order to accomplish this, transparent and bi-directional communication across service lines and teams with organizational leaders is essential. Leader rounding for high reliability helps to ensure effective communication takes place. Developing and implementing an evidence-based process for leader rounding for high reliability is important as is determining effectiveness over time. We describe an initiative for assessing effectiveness after an evidence-based process for leader rounding for high reliability was created and implemented for the Veterans Affairs Bedford Healthcare System.