The constant change of how health services are rendered is inevitable. Our times now are more different than ever and our social dynamics are also becoming more complex. Although we see that there is already a lengthening of human lifespan due to the significant efforts of global public health, there are also new illnesses being experienced as well as an increase in long-term health conditions. On top of that, the global population is also consistently increasing.
In order to meet the health demands of today's society, quality and service improvement is necessary. The implementation of services in hospitals, clinics and many other health care settings will have to adapt to possible changes.
If you are a health care provider, you can engage in quality improvement even in the littlest of ways. Creating a comment box in the office reception for service users to say something (whether positive or negative) about how they feel on the care received is an example of a quality and service improvement action. We just have to observe and spot the areas that cause the most complaints, the areas that pose a risk and areas that delay or hinder the performance of an excellent service. Whether this is about the lighting of the building or on situations where patients feel that they are not being attended enough, many angles will have to be considered.
In more formal settings, quality improvement are implemented as projects using scientific methodologies. One good example which is highly endorsed by many institutions is the use of the Plan-Do-Study-Act system or otherwise known as the PDSA cycle.
In the PDSA cycle, everything starts with the recognition of the problem. No service is perfect thus there will always be problems no matter what. However, we can always find ways of improving and making things better but this always start with finding what the problem is.
Once the problem is identified, several solutions will be enumerated as well as narrowed down so that only the relatable ones can be implemented. This will sometimes involve looking at solutions that already worked in other institutions which can be made through literature reviews or by researching on the present evidence on how similar problems were actioned by others. In reality, these solutions may or may not work in our workplace so the goal of the PDSA cycle is to test these and find out if are they really the best solution for the problem at present.
In the "Study" phase, data will be collected after each implementation of the solution. For example, if the concern was that staff weren't compliant with their mandatory trainings and the solution was to provide them with a protected learning time to complete their e-learnings, then a statistic of the compliance will be collected to see if has there been a significant increase. If the data is more complex, a statistician may be needed to analyse in more detail.
The PDSA cycle embraces data driven decision making. Rather than by actioning on the basis of reflex and instant decisions, the cycle allows us to pause and study our actions to see if they work. If we don't rely on data, the concern or problem may never be resolved and we continue to go with the same procedure even if they don't produce the result that we wanted.
Then comes the Action phase where the effective solutions are implemented. At this stage, the researchers should be able to know what will work for their workplace based on data. If none of the solutions worked, the researchers will go back to the planning phase thus it is a cycle.
There are so many methodologies for quality improvement and the PDSA cycle is a popular one. There's also the Six Sigma methodology which is sometimes used by tech companies but whatever methodology is being used, the point should be in gearing towards a more improved service through quality improvement. When the service is improved, you'll have clients that are more satisfied as well as staff who are more empowered and motivated to work.