Quality Improvement

Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.

This innovative volume presents a cogent case for quality improvement (QI) in behavioral healthcare as ethical practice, solid science, and good business. Divided between foundational concepts, key QI tools and methods, and emerging applications, it offers guidelines for raising care standards while addressing ongoing issues of treatment validity, staffing and training, costs and funding, and integration with medical systems. Expert contributors review the implications and potential of QI in diverse areas such as treatment of entrenched mental disorders, in correctional facilities, and within the professional context of the American Psychological Association. The insights, examples, and strategies featured will increase in value as behavioral health becomes more prominent in integrated care and vital to large-scale health goals. Included in the coverage: Behavioral health conditions: direct treatment costs and indirect social costs. /liliQuality improvement and clinical psychological science. · Process mapping to improve quality in behavioral health service delivery. · Checklists for quality improvement and evaluation in behavioral health. · Creating a quality improvement system for an integrated care program: the why, what, and how to measure. · Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT): improving the outcome of psychotherapy one person at a time. Quality Improvement i n Behavioral Healthcare gives health psychologists, public health professionals, and health administrators a real-world framework for maintaining quality services in a rapidly evolving health landscape.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

Little in the current world is simple. Nothing comes in a box for us to add water and stir. There are those, however, who have been successful and who are willing to share their success. The messages in The Public Health Quality Improvement Handbook are from leaders, physicians, practitioners, academics, consultants, and researchers who are successfully applying the tools and techniques they share. The chapters are written to support the leaders and workforce of our public health community. This book, a collaboration between ASQ and the Public Health Foundation, is an anthology of chapters written by subject matter experts in public health who are successfully meeting client needs, working together to maximize outcomes, and expanding their collaboration with community partners to encourage better health within neighborhoods, counties, and states. There has never been a better time or a more needed one for us to harness the energy, enthusiasm, hard work, and dedication of our public health workforce to make a lasting difference. By effectively using quality improvement tools and techniques, we can and will improve our nation’s health.

The Practitioner's Guide to Data Quality Improvement offers a comprehensive look at data quality for business and IT, encompassing people, process, and technology. It shares the fundamentals for understanding the impacts of poor data quality, and guides practitioners and managers alike in socializing, gaining sponsorship for, planning, and establishing a data quality program. It demonstrates how to institute and run a data quality program, from first thoughts and justifications to maintenance and ongoing metrics. It includes an in-depth look at the use of data quality tools, including business case templates, and tools for analysis, reporting, and strategic planning. This book is recommended for data management practitioners, including database analysts, information analysts, data administrators, data architects, enterprise architects, data warehouse engineers, and systems analysts, and their managers. Offers a comprehensive look at data quality for business and IT, encompassing people, process, and technology. Shows how to institute and run a data quality program, from first thoughts and justifications to maintenance and ongoing metrics. Includes an in-depth look at the use of data quality tools, including business case templates, and tools for analysis, reporting, and strategic planning.

Health Administration

This book offers a comprehensive overview of performing return-on-investment (ROI) analyses for healthcare quality improvement (QI). In the United States, healthcare policy regarding physician and facility payment/reimbursement is steadily trending towards the use of “value-based” systems and away from the traditional “fee-for-service” (FFS) payment mechanisms. Healthcare professionals and organizations who have previously focused on quality metrics are now finding themselves burdened with having to define and assess value metrics, without much guidance or assistance. This volume aims to be a guide and a reference for healthcare professionals tasked with estimating and establishing ROI for QI. Chapters describe the general framework for how to perform QI; establish standard definitions of important terms, concepts, and calculations; and provide specific instructions for how to complete each step of an ROI analysis. These include: selecting a QI initiative and identifying the associated metrics, establishing measurable, monetizable, and attributable costs and benefits, determining the appropriate scope and perspective, calculating ROI and related metrics (payback period, benefit-to-cost ratio, etc.), comparing with established benchmarks or previously published results, and interpreting the results for the intended audience. In addition, chapters offer examples of real studies (or hypothetical studies of real situations), as well as templates for several of the necessary activities that readers can leverage for their own use. Return on Investment for Healthcare Quality Improvement is a must-have resource for healthcare providers, administrators, and other professionals who work in healthcare organizations, hospitals and other healthcare settings, health systems, and residency programs seeking to obtain outside funding, as well as policy makers and administrators of federal programs.

The ASQ Certified Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA) certification introduces the basics of quality to organizations and individuals who are new to quality. This book, and the Body of Knowledge (BoK) it supports, form a foundation for applying proven quality principles and practices that are used around the world. This handbook follows the CQIA span in both content and sequence. Let it serve as your guide in preparing for the ASQ CQIA examination, and refer to it frequently as you learn and implement these ideas and tools in your organization.