Sourcebook : 2.8 Testing Changes : 2.8.3 Using Storyboards to Demonstrate Progress

What to do with the data once it has been collected, analyzed, and interpreted? Teams need to promote their improvement efforts - sharing them within the organization, with other health care groups, and with the community - to achieve the support necessary to spread the improvements. Breakthrough Series teams show what they know by using storyboards (much like posters) that track progress in key areas. Teams can then tell their stories to colleagues, administrators, the community, and the public - and use simple graphs to demonstrate change and improvement. Storyboards tell the story of the work or project, how it was done, and what it accomplished (Rainey, 1998). In essence, storyboards are a paper "sound bite" that people can see, understand, and remember.

In presenting information via the storyboard, be sure to:

• Design it to be easily and quickly read and understood
• Include only critical information
• Keep it simple
• Tell the truth without fudging
• Make the goal or aim of the project clear and apparent
• Label axes on graphs; give the number of responses and the date

In Breakthrough Series programs, teams follow a basic outline for what to include on their storyboards:

• Organization name and location
• Aim
• Measures
• Changes
• Results

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This online version of the book Improving Care for the End of Life: A Sourcebook for Health Care Managers and Clinicians is provided with permission of Americans for Better Care of the Dying [ www.abcd-caring.org ] and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For further information on quality improvement in end-of-life care visit The Palliative Care Policy Center [ www.medicaring.org ].