Quality Improvement Tools Discussion Paper

Visiting a building site, an engineer notices a corrosive reaction occurring in the materials that could threaten structural integrity. The engineer assesses the corrosion and then plans to apply specialized paints to rebuild strength. Without tools providing the necessary mitigation—in this case, the paints—the flaws would remain and potentially lead to building failure.
Similarly, nurse executives need the right tools to improve quality throughout their organizations. These tools include instruments to study processes, assess performance, and uncover gaps or problems that need to be addressed.
This week, you will explore healthcare quality improvement tools in more depth. You will also embark on your Personal Improvement Project, developing an outline and starting to collect data.  Quality Improvement Tools Discussion Paper
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Analyze use of quality improvement tools and their effect on individuals, organizations, and patients
Analyze successes and challenges of using quality improvement tools

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Quality Improvement Tools

Quality improvement tools are important because they help in formalizing the quality improvement process. There are a range of tools that help with the process. One of the tools is process mapping. It is applied to help medical facilities and organizations better understand the health care processes that take place within their systems and practice. Previously used in engineering projects, process mapping has been adapted in health care to help with offering a visualization of the sequence of events that result in a specific outcome. Through reviewing each step of the process and the sequence of the steps as well as who is responsible for each step and the efficiency of the systems, the organization can get an idea of the improvement opportunities. In addition, the process mapping tool can help with evaluating and redesigning current processes (Antonacci et al., 2018; Finkelman, 2018).

Another tool is the clinical quality measures. Each medical organization already has considerable amounts of data from various sources, such as population health evaluations, satisfaction surveys, practice management systems, clinical records, and others. Focusing on understanding the available data in a methodological and disciplined manner helps the organization to evaluate its current processes and identify improvement opportunities while monitoring improvements in the performance over time. The clinical quality measures help with narrowing the focus of the data, acting as a standardized measure that focuses the quality improvement actions (Sang & Dearholt, 2018). For instance, data on nurse-patient ratios and hospital acquired infections can help making correlations between nurse personnel numbers and patient outcomes so that the organization can justify its actions to increase the number of nurses and monitor their impact.

References

Antonacci, G., Reed, J., Lennox, L. & Barlow, J. (2018). The Use of Process Mapping in Healthcare Quality Improvement Projects. Health Services Management Research, 31(2), 74-84. DOI: 10.1177/0951484818770411

Finkelman, A. (2018). Quality improvement: a guide for integration in nursing. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Sang, D. & Dearholt, S. (2018). John Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice (3^rd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.  Quality Improvement Tools Discussion Paper