The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services define quality improvement (QI) as "the framework used to systematically improve care. Quality improvement seeks to standardize processes and structure to reduce variation, achieve predictable results, and improve outcomes for patients, healthcare systems, and organizations."
While there are many frameworks to choose from to guide a QI project, some of the most common ones are:
"Quality improvement measurement, tools, and information, including AHRQ Quality Indicators Hospital Toolkit and ambulatory clinical performance measures."
“The Hospital VBP Program encourages hospitals to improve the quality, efficiency, patient experience and safety of care that Medicare beneficiaries receive during acute care inpatient stays.”
Results from the AHRQ report looking at the development of methods and estimation of the incremental inpatient financial costs and additional inpatient mortality associated with 10 selected hospital-acquired conditions.
"The Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is one of health care’s most widely used performance improvement tools." Includes more than 90 measures over 6 domains of care. Provided by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
The HRSA Quality Toolkit includes tools and resources to support quality improvement efforts by healthcare organization. Shared by the National Rural Health Resources Center.
HCAHPS is a "standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perspectives on hospital care." Also known as CAHPS® Hospital Survey, or Hospital CAHPS.
Includes tools and templates to "launch a successful quality improvement project and manage performance improvement."
"IHI uses the Model for Improvement as the framework to guide improvement work...This model is not meant to replace change models that organizations may already be using, but rather to accelerate improvement."
IHI Open School provides "essential training and tools in an online, educational community to help you and your team deliver excellent, safe care."
Contains more than 150 titles that provide "quick instruction on a wide range of health care improvement topics." Videos include discussion questions, learning objectives, and facilitator guides for group learning.
A free course that provides healthcare practitioners and others with an introduction to the knowledge and skills needed to lead patient safety and quality improvement initiatives at the micro and macro levels.
NQF provides measures and standards for healthcare quality measurement to help healthcare decision-makers.
Leapfrog provides two surveys: one that collects safety data on ambulatory survey centers (ASCs) and a hospital survey that gathers information about the quality and safety of inpatient care.
