(Community, 2012)Continuous quality improvement (CQI) and continuous quality management (CQM) are two descriptors for the same process. CQI is utilized by health care organizations to identify areas of improvement or non-compliance and resolve those issues. Often times it is accreditation boards that will spur the sudden interest in the area of deficiency that the health care organization has. There are many different types of accrediting boards, each whose purpose is to establish best practice health care organizations. CQI is not a magic trick, problems can range from simple to highly complex and solutions can often be found after many hours of works and rework.
CQI has a few steps, the first is often found when an accreditation board comes in to inspect a facility or a process. This does not always have to be the case but is often what catches many issues of non-compliance. Since the first step is identifying what, the next step is to establish why, as in why is the health care organization non-compliant. This is not always a simple solution, many different groups can be involved in the organization and data may need to be pulled from any documented cases of non-compliance. Once a reason or group of reasons can be established for why then a group of people who are directly involved with the process should be look into how to fix the issue.
The how phase can be a long process, as there may not be just one answer. The group should decide that best answer to fix the issue and then more to the do phase. The do phase is the training and implementation of the solution to the issue. If the solution does not come about then the cycle starts again and a new action plan is run through (Hariharan, 2010). This continuous loop should be used time and time again to solve, check, and rework any issues of non-compliance that a health care organization may face.
(123RF, 2012)In my time as a medical software consultant I have seen countless hospitals go through this quality process and the I can confidently say that the hospitals that were most successful had people that were in place whose sole role was to establish those projects and to carry them through their life cycle. These professionals were vital cogs in the machine that was their health care organization. These people were there to always catch the new rules and regulations set forth by accrediting bodies and to work towards resolution any areas that needed it. They also were there to check and recheck past solutions to make sure that there organization stayed complaint once the focus was no longer on a specific directive. The most important idea to understand is that quality monitoring is a continuous process or cycle that really has no beginning and no end, but can be the difference between a top quality health care organization and one that is not.
References:
123RF (2012). Cycle. retrieved from website: http://www.123rf.com/photo_11662158_24-7-blue-medical-symbol-cycle-illustration-design.html
Community Partners (2012). Quality assurance and consumer rights. retrieved from website: http://www.communitypartnersnh.org/?page_id=547
Hariharan, S., & Prasanta, K. D. (2010). A comprehensive approach to quality management of intensive care services. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 23(3), 287-300. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09526861011029352
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