Health Care Quality: An Introduction to the Model for Improvement

Free on-demand video to achieve rapid improvement in care delivery and outcomes

Published: Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - 09:08

The free, on-demand presentation, “An Introduction to the Model for Improvement,” from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a simple yet powerful approach to achieving rapid and significant improvements in health care delivery and outcomes. It has been used successfully by hundreds of health care organizations to improve many different health care processes and outcomes.

The hour-long streaming video features Robert Lloyd, Ph.D., IHI’s executive director of performance improvement. Lloyd’s presentation builds on a foundation of applied science, focusing on how three key questions can help drive quality improvement in health care work:

1. What are we trying to accomplish?
2. How will we know that a change is an improvement?
3. What change can we make that will result in improvement?

Viewers will also learn how to use the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle to test changes on a small scale, learn from these tests, and then apply that learning to the next cycle of testing.

Finally, the sequence for improvement will be described, and the steps to move from testing to implementing to spreading will be addressed. The presentation will also help participants set up a series of exercises to test their teams’ knowledge and skills related to the model for improvement and the PDSA cycles.

The following topics are addressed in the presentation:
• Applied science
• The model for improvement
• Developing an aim statement
• Operational definitions
• Change concepts
• PDSA cycles

By the end of this presentation, you'll be able to:
• Describe how applied science serves as the foundation for quality improvement
• Understand the three key key questions for quality improvement and the PDSA cycle
• Apply the three questions and the PDSA cycle to team projects

Lloyd is featured on three of IHI’s On Demand Presentations. Each of these addresses a distinct topic and can be viewed as a series in the following order:

1. On Demand: An Introduction to the Model for Improvement.
Provides a framework for organizing and guiding a team’s improvement journey.

2. On Demand: Building Skills in Data Collection and Understanding Variation.
Designed to help teams successfully manage the milestones along the quality measurement journey.

3. On Demand: Using Run and Control Charts to Understand Variation.
Addresses the application of statistical process control (SPC) methods, with specific attention given to run and control charts.

You can view these presentations any time at your convenience. Enroll today.

About The Author

Institute for Healthcare Improvement IHI

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent nonprofit organization that works with health care providers and leaders throughout the world to achieve safe and effective health care. IHI focuses on motivating the will for change, identifying and testing new models of care in partnership with patients and health care professionals, and ensuring the broadest possible adoption of best practices and effective innovations. IHI mobilizes teams and organizations through its staff and partnerships with faculty members worldwide who share the philosophy “all teach, all learn.” Founded in 1991, IHI is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.