Resource Library

A Modern Paradigm for Improving Healthcare Quality

A Modern Paradigm for Improving Healthcare Quality sets out the methodologies for four approaches to quality improvement (QI). The four approaches, which vary in the intensity of resources and time they require, are individual problem solving, rapid team problem solving, systematic team problem solving, and performance improvement. Activities/tools: systems view, evidence-based medicine, hierarchy of evidence, hypothesis testing, interpreting data variation, four steps to QI, continuous QI, Shewart's Cycle for Learning and Improvement (Plan, Do, Study, Act), matrix of QI tools, descriptions of 21 QI tools and activities with advice on when and how to use each.