Track: Quality Control and Management

Abstract

Fueled by public incidents and growing evidence of deficiencies in care, concern over the quality and outcomes of care has increased. Traditional methods of quality improvement (QI) like quality assurance and quality control are no longer preferred. Proactive methods are replacing them, but with little awareness.  It has become a need of the era to look after the QI required for the health care and make professionals aware for the QI methodology and terminology. The poster aims to provide professionals with sufficient information to understand the fundamentals of QI, a starting point for improvement projects and stimulate further inquiry into the QI methodologies currently being used in health care. Prior to applying the following methods, an appropriate benchmark is set-up by rigorous measurements to define the extent of transformation. The methods involved in the initiatives of quality improvement are: PDSA (Plan Do Study Act), Six Sigma and Lean strategies, where the PDSA cycle assists in testing the ideas through small tests of change, six Sigma aims at reducing variations in processes and the Lean methodology predominantly focuses on enhancing process efficiency and eliminating non-value added steps in the process. It is likely that such structured problem solving approaches will provide an objective and systematic method of enhancing quality in healthcare institutions.