Healthcare Quality and Performance Improvement

Introduction

Healthcare quality professionals devote their energies to delivering real and lasting improvements. As the importance of quality and accreditation grows, so it is becoming more vital than ever that quality leaders and specialists are able to meet the demands of their work and have a real impact on the quality of patient care.

The IHLM Advanced Quality Leadership Programme is a highly comprehensive and interactive professional development programme in which, over five richly-packed days, programme members build advanced knowledge of the art, craft and science of healthcare quality improvement.

Highly practical and relevant, the programme demonstrates in detail the tools and techniques with which healthcare quality can be transformed. The programme will give you actionable, practical skills acquired in a collaborative and immersive learning environment.

Objectives

The program is divided into five modules and includes detailed instruction in –

• The Science of Healthcare Quality Improvement – Review the models, concepts, and theories that together comprise the emerging science of healthcare quality improvement.
• Measurement for Improvement – Practice using advanced measurement and data analysis techniques to identify opportunities for improvement and see whether improvement efforts are actually working.
• Solutions for Improvement – Solve quality problems, develop creative improvement ideas, and design experiments to test them.
• Leading Improvement – Learn how to coach effective improvement teams and lead successful improvement projects.
• Implementing, Spreading, and Sustaining Improvement – Manage the human dimensions of change to implement, spread, and embed improvement in your healthcare organization.

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practice. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants on what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations. The online course is conducted online using MS-Teams/ClickMeeting.

Who Should Attend?

This program has been designed for anyone who leads or manages quality improvements in healthcare and who wants to deepen or refresh their knowledge and maximize their impact. It will also benefit any healthcare professional or clinician (including physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals) who is interested or involved in quality improvement activities – or who simply have a passion for healthcare quality!

It will be especially useful for:

• quality improvement specialists, advisers, and facilitators
• quality leaders, directors, and managers
• quality inspectors and surveyors from health ministries and authorities
• freelance healthcare quality consultants

Throughout the program, there are allocated timeslots allowing ample opportunities to practice the techniques and ideas being taught using interactive exercises and case studies

Course Outline

Module 1: The Science of Healthcare Quality Improvement

In Module 1 we open the program with a look at the models, concepts, and theories that together comprise the emerging science of healthcare quality improvement. Improvement science is gaining momentum and every effective quality leader needs to ensure their improvement efforts are based as much on scientific evidence as they are on best practices.

• The Science of Improvement – Understand the scientific basis for healthcare quality improvement and define the skills, knowledge, and understanding that are needed to become an effective improvement leader. Review ‘The Model for Improvement’: a proven framework that enables you to develop, test, and implement quality improvements at the pace and scale of your choosing.
• Appreciating Healthcare Systems – Discover how an understanding of systems, including clinical microsystems, helps us make sense of what’s going on in our hospital, clinic, or department. Learn how healthcare organizations can use a reliable design methodology to improve their systems.

Module 2: Measurement for Improvement

Good data is absolutely vital for understanding quality, tracking improvement, and implementing successful changes. In Module 2 we review and practice using measurement and data analysis techniques to identify opportunities for improvement and see whether our improvement efforts are actually working.

• Selecting Improvement Projects – Practice selecting and scoping improvement projects. Learn how to link improvement projects to your organization’s strategy and ensure they improve value.
• Defining and Collecting Improvement Data – Learn how to define and collect the right quantitative and qualitative data to understand quality and observe improvement.
• Evaluating Improvement – Analyse and display quality data using a variety of methods including two-way tables, scatter plots, causal models, Pareto diagrams, frequency plots, run charts, Shewhart control charts, and Statistical Process Control (SPC).

Module 3: Solutions for Improvement

All improvement requires change, but not every change is an improvement. In Module 3 we will discover how to develop both small and fundamental changes that can result in genuine improvements to the quality of healthcare services.

• Developing Ideas for Improvement – Discover creative techniques such as ‘Driver Diagrams’, ‘Six Thinking Hats’, and ‘Ladders of Inference’ that can be used to identify, analyze and solve quality problems and develop powerful ideas for change. Also, consider how quality leaders leverage technology for improvement.
• Planning Tests of Change – Design experiments to test the impact of your ideas for change. Learn how to determine the appropriate scale for a test and how to plan all the appropriate steps.
• Quality Improvement Dashboards – Learn how to design a quality improvement dashboard and select quality indicators that will provide a realtime, or near-realtime, a measure of quality.

Module 4: Leading Improvement

We cannot improve healthcare quality without understanding the people who manage and deliver care. What motivates them? How do they interact with each other? How will they react to change? Hence, in Module 4 we move away from the scientific aspects of improvement to focus on its softer but just as important human side.

• Leading Improvement – Observe the characteristics of the most effective improvement leaders and see how they use storytelling, ‘crucial conversations’, and the involvement of patients and families to build momentum behind their improvement projects.
• Building an Improvement Culture – Discover what is different about the culture and climate of the most high-performing healthcare organizations. Identify how they develop their workforce’s improvement capabilities.
• Collaboration and Teamwork – Learn how to coach and lead effective improvement teams, facilitate productive meetings, allocate roles and responsibilities to others, and communicate effectively.

Module 5: Implementing, Spreading and Sustaining Improvement

Change happens when healthcare staff decides to try something new. But in order to do that they have to let go of current behavior and believe that there is a better alternative. In our final module we, therefore, consider how improvements can be implemented on a small scale, spread throughout an organization, and eventually become fully embedded into its systems and culture.

• Implementing and Spreading Improvement – Reflect on how to manage the human dimensions of change and understand when and under what conditions resistance can be overcome and improvement can be implemented and spread successfully.
• Embedding and Sustaining Change – Discover how successful change leaders ensure that improvements endure and take root permanently within the systems and culture of their organization.