Quality improvement

 Quality improvement

Quality improvement in health care is defined as systematic, data-guided activities designed to bring about immediate improvements in health care delivery in particular settings.

Periodic examination of organizational activities, policies, procedures and performance to identify best practices and target areas where need to improvement; includes implementation of corrective actions or policy changes where needed.

After an organization identifies opportunities for performance improvement through data analysis, it then can make changes to the underlying system targeted for improvement. QI models help an improvement team to focus on changes that have already proven to be effective, and they also provide guidance on different ways to approach change

There are a variety of QI models

1. Care Model: There are six fundamental aspects of care identified in the Care Model, which creates a system that promotes high-quality disease and prevention management. It does this by supporting productive interactions between patients, who take an active part in their care, and providers, who have the necessary resources and expertise.

1. Lean Model: This model defines value by what a customer (i.e., patient) wants. It maps how the value flows to the customer (i.e., patient), and ensures the competency of the process by making it cost effective and time efficient.

1. Model for Improvement: This model focuses on three questions to set the aim or organizational goal, establish measures, and select changes. It incorporates Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles to test changes on a small scale.

 

2. FADE: There are four broad steps to the FADE QI model:

• Focus-define process to be improved
• Analyze-collect and analyze data
• Develop-develop action plans for improvement
• Execute-implement the action plans, and Evaluate measure and monitor the system to ensure success

 

3. Six Sigma: Six Sigma is a measurement-based strategy for process improvement and problem reduction. It is completed through the application of the QI project and accomplished with the use of two Six Sigma models: 1) DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control), which is designed to examine existing processes, and 2) DMADV (define, measure, analyze, design, verify) which is used to develop new processes.

 

 
 

4. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle to test and implement changes in real-work settings. The PDSA cycle guides the test of change to determine if the change is an improvement.