Research & Improvement 

The Institute for Health Care Research and Improvement (IHCRI) was established by Baylor Health Care System (BHCS) in 1999 to encourage and facilitate research relating to clinical effectiveness, patient safety and healthcare quality improvement throughout BHCS. The ongoing successes of these health care quality improvement and safety efforts have led to BHCS’s receipt of several regional and national awards including the Leapfrog Patient-Centered Care Award and the National Quality Healthcare Award of the National Quality Forum (NQF). BHCS ranked second among more than 250 multi-hospital health care systems across the United States in overall quality of care by the American Hospital Association in 2011 and was the recipient of the 2010 Preeminence Award of the American Medical Group Association.

David J. Ballard, MD, PhD, MSPH, FACP, BHCS senior vice president and chief quality officer and president of STEEEP Global Institute (SGI), is executive director and BHCS Endowed Chair of the IHCRI.

Don Kennerly, MD, PhD, serves as vice president and associate chief quality officer of the Baylor Health Care System.

IHCRI research efforts align with the Institute of Medicine’s call for health care to become more STEEEP (Safe, Timely, Effective, Efficient, Equitable, and Patient Centered).

Examples of current and prior IHCRI health services research initiatives with peer reviewed funding across various disciplines (and investigators in those areas) are listed below:

Cardiovascular Research

Giovanni Filardo, PhD, MPH, director of epidemiology

• 3-year, $2.3 million grant from NIH/National Heart Lung Blood Institute for the study, New-onset Post-CABG Atrial Fibrillation
• 3-year, $750,000 grant from AHRQ for the study, Large Population-based Study of Surgery for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Comparative Effectiveness and Implementation Science

Andrew Masica, MD, MSC, vice president of clinical innovation

• 2-year, $590,000 grant awarded by AHRQ for Implementing a Bundle for Intensive Care Unit Delirium-The IBID Project
• 4-year grant awarded by the NIH/National Institute on Aging for Modifying the Impact of ICU-associated Neurologic Dysfunction-USA Study (MIND-USA)
• 3-year, $900,000 grant awarded by AHRQ for the study, Enhancing Clinical Effectiveness Research with Natural Language Processing of EMRs
• 3-year, $850,000 Health Care Innovation Challenge grant awarded in 2012 by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)/Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) for CMS High Value Healthcare Collaborative (HVHC): Engaging Patients to Meet the Triple Aim

Electronic Health Records

Dr. David Ballard

• 3-year, $580,000 grant awarded by the American Diabetes Association for the study, Impact of an Ambulatory Electronic Health Record on Quality of Diabetes Care in a Primary Care Setting
• 2-year, $300,000 grant awarded by AHRQ for the study, Impact of Health IT Implementation on Diabetes Process and Outcome Measures in a Primary Care Setting
• BHCS PI, 5-year AHRQ-funded study, Accelerating Change and Transformation in Organizations and Networks (ACTION II)

Neil S. Fleming, PhD, CQE, vice president and chief operating officer, SGI

• 3-year, $100,000 grant awarded by AHRQ for Impact of Health IT on Primary Care Work-flow and Financial Measures

Patient Safety Research

Dr. Donald Kennerly

• Two grant awards from AHRQ, totaling $1 million, to develop an enhanced version of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) Outpatient Trigger Tool (OTT) and a dissemination toolkit
• 3-year, $870,000 grant awarded by AHRQ for Improving the Safety of Primary Care by Measuring Adverse Events and Improvement

Yan Xiao, PhD, director of patient safety research

• 3-year, $350,000 AHRQ grant award for Improving Physician and Nurse Communication with Serious Gaming
• Co-investigator, 5-year NIH/NIDKK-funded study Does Under-recognition of Kidney Disease Affect Patient Safety? 

Trauma Research

Shahid Shafi, MD, MPH, clinical scholar, trauma surgeon and BIR director of rehabilitation research

• BHCS PI, U.S. Department of Education 5-year, $2.2 million grant award as a National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research Model System site for traumatic brain injury, North Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Model
• 2-year, $243,000 grant from the National Institute of Trauma for Comparative Effectiveness of Clinical Care Processes in Resuscitation and Management of Moderate to Severe Traumatic Injuries
• 3-year, $900,000 grant awarded by AHRQ for From NSQIP to TQIP - Trauma Quality Improvement Project

Community Health Care

Baylor researchers are collaborating with community members and organizations to define community health issues, interventions and research methods to test research hypotheses.

With a three-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas worked with HealthTexas Provider Network's Office of Community Health and Central Dallas Ministries to measure the effectiveness of a volunteer health care delivery program. Project Access works to reduce emergency department visits by patients who have historically high rates of ER visits.

One result of the study has been the creation of a community-based chronic disease management program for patients with diabetes at Central Dallas Ministries-Community Health Services.

Future community health improvement research will study the effectiveness of chronic disease management for diabetic patients enrolled in Project Access and its impact on blood glucose control, quality of life, complication rates, hospital and emergency department utilization and re-admissions.

Find more information on a research study at Baylor.