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Quality Improvement In Health Care Essay

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The necessity for quality and safety improvement initiatives permeates health care. Quality health care is defined as “the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” (Kohn, Corrigan & Donaldson, 2000). Most care deficits are based in systems and processes and not individuals. Healthcare is has variation and complexity. According to the IOM our healthcare could and should be more effective, safe, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable.
Improvements in effectiveness and safety can be approached through assessing whether health care providers perform processes that have been demonstrated to achieve desired aims and avoid those processes that are predisposed toward harm. Measuring health care quality involves the effect of the care on …show more content…

Quality improvement projects aiming to make positive changes in health care processes and eventually better outcomes can use the PDSA model which is a rapid cycle improvement process and endorsed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. This model has a cyclical approach to assessing change and creating small and frequent PDSAs rather than big and slow ones, before changes are made system wide.
The PDSA quality improvement effort establishes a functional relationship between changes in processes (specifically behaviors and capabilities) and outcomes. The PDSA cycle includes identifying the goal of the project, when the goal will be reached, and activities needed to reach the goal. When a PDSA change is implemented data and information are collected as a normal part of the process. Results from the implementation are assessed and measures reviewed which can indicate success or failure. Lastly, action is taken on the results by implementing the change or beginning the process again (Hughes,

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