Topic7Introductiontoqualityimprovementmethods.pdfVIP

Topic 7: Introduction to quality improvement methods Why students need to know about make improvements; quality improvement methods 1 ? being aware that the way people think and Students will be familiar with the term react is as important as the structures and evidence-based medicine and the randomized processes in place; controlled trial, which has enabled medicine to ? realizing that the spread of innovative establish if a particular treatment is validated by practices is a result of people adopting new evidence or merely one that rests on belief of the processes and not the other way around. practitioners. Research methods such as the randomized controlled trial measure clinical Most quality improvement methods are based on effectiveness. But such methods do not measure the application of continuous quality improvement contextual components or the process of care. theory developed by the manufacturing industry. The problems in health systems are significantly The principle underpinning quality improvement affected by the processes of care and a was that quality was not something controlled at randomized controlled trial will not measure the the end of the line, but rather throughout the problems nor fix them. Students need to be aware entire work process. This topic explains some of that process measures require different methods. the underlying theory. The science of improvement is new to medicine and as a result there has been debate about Traditional attempts to persuade and influence whether the measures of quality improvement are clinicians to change behaviour, such as rigorous enough. Berwick has captured this compliance with a protocol or vigilance in regard debate in a paper published in 2008 where he to drug interactions in the interest of improving the argued that both research methods are necessary quality of patient care, have by and large failed. to improve health-care