Editorial Note –Quality Improvement: For Better Health Outcomes

Abstract

Quality is meeting the needs and exceeding the expectations of those we serve. Quality Improvement (QI) consists of systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement in health care services and the health status of targeted patient groups. It is a method for ensuring that all the activities necessary to design, develop and implement a product or service are effective and efficient with respect to the system and its performance.
QI involves both prospective and retrospective reviews. It is aimed at improvement i.e. measuring where you are, and making sense of approaches to better things It particularly endeavors to abstain from crediting fault, and to create systems to prevent errors from happening.
The four key principles of QI are (1.) QI work as systems and processes (2) focus on patients (3.) Focus on being part of the team (4.) Focus on use of the data. QI Program is essential to a health care organization because it leads to (1) Improved patient health outcomes and efficiency of managerial and clinical processes, (2) Reduced organizational waste and costs associated with system failures, (3) Avoid costs associated with process failures, errors, and poor outcomes, (4) Improved communication with funders and community organizations which results in increase partnership, and (5) It leads to proactive processes that recognize and solve problems before they occur and ensures that systems of care are reliable and predictable.