QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
The Institute of Medicine’s six domains of healthcare quality—safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable—provide a framework for assessing quality and guiding improvement. Though broad, the domains can help in generating more specific measures to monitor within an organization.
For example, if a nurse executive were interested in the timeliness of care, he or she may want to analyze appointment wait times.
For this Discussion, you consider your own experiences in healthcare settings—either professional or personal—and evaluate one situation for its markers of quality.
To Prepare
- Reflect on your familiarity with quality improvement.
- Think of a time you experienced high- or low-quality healthcare, either as a professional or as a patient or family member.
Post a reflection on your personal and/or professional experiences with quality improvement. First, assess your familiarity with quality improvement in healthcare. Then, describe a time you experienced healthcare that was representative of either high or low quality. Be specific and provide examples. Explain which domains of healthcare quality were present and absent in that scenario.
Required Readings
Johnson, J. K., & Sollecito, W. A. (2020). McLaughlin & Kaluzny’s continuous quality improvement in health care (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Foreword (pp. xiii–xvii)
- Chapter 1: “The Global Evolution of Continuous Quality Improvement: From Japanese Manufacturing to Global Health Services” (pp. xviii–30)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2018). Six domains of health care qualityLinks to an external site.. Retrieved from https://www.ahrq.gov/talkingquality/measures/six-domains.html
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (n.d.a). How to improveLinks to an external site.. Retrieved from http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/HowtoImprove/default.aspx
Neuhauser, D., Myhre, S., & Alemi, F. (2004). Personal continuous improvement workbook Download Personal continuous improvement workbook(7th ed.). McLean, VA: Academy for Healthcare Improvement.
Credit line: Neuhauser, D., Myhre, S., & Alemi, F. (2004). Personal continuous improvement workbook (7th ed.). Retrieved from https://qsen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/personal_continuous_improvement_work_book-2.pdf
