Quality improvement (QI) is a systematic, formal approach to the analysis of practice performance and efforts to improve performance. A variety of approaches—or QI models—exist to help you collect and analyze data and test change.
QI is integral to individuals as well as organizations that continually improve quality, safety, and values. The science of improvement is an applied science that emphasizes innovation, rapid-cycle testing in the field, and spread in order to generate learning about what changes, in which contexts, produce improvements. It is characterized by the combination of expert subject knowledge with improvement methods and tools. It is multidisciplinary — drawing on clinical science, systems theory, psychology, statistics, and other fields.
Regardless of the model used, quality Improvement asks three basic questions — What are we trying to accomplish? How will we know that a change is an improvement? What changes can we make that will result in improvement? — and then employs different feedback
loops for small, rapid-cycle tests of change.
Implementing QI in health systems have scored impressive gains in improving outcomes and patient satisfaction and lower costs, as well as eliminating waste and boosting quality.
On a personal level, reducing waste can translate to more free time, better health, improved environment or work/life flow, and even self fulfillment.