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A Practical Guide to Conducting Quality Improvement in the Health Care Setting

2015; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 1; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s40746-015-0027-3

2198-6088

Eileen Murtagh Kurowski, Amanda C. Schondelmeyer, Courtney Brown, Christopher E. Dandoy, Samuel J. Hanke, Heather L. Tubbs Cooley,

Healthcare cost, quality, practices

Quality improvement uses rigorous methodology to evaluate systemic changes to patient care processes in an effort to improve patient outcomes, the patient and family experience of care, and the safety and value of the care delivered. This article introduces the Model for Improvement, which was developed by the Associates for Process Improvement in the early 1990s using an adaptation of a real-life improvement project. The example will explore how a primary care practice uses the Model for Improvement to maximize the value and safety of care they deliver for children presenting with community-acquired pneumonia with an initial focus on appropriate first-line antibiotic treatment. The three fundamental questions which form the foundation of this approach are explored through the case example: (1) What are we trying to accomplish? (2) How will we know that a change is an improvement? (3) What changes can we make that will result in improvement? Examples of many of the fundamental tools used in the course of quality improvement work, such as a key driver diagram, run chart, and plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle, are explored throughout the text. Finally, a discussion of implementation and sustainability of improvement gains is introduced. This article serves as a primer on quality improvement in health care and serves as a foundation for subsequent articles in this issue as well as future learning.