Quality Improvement in Program Planning
Discuss the importance of quality improvement in program planning. Describe a quality improvement tool
that can be used to evaluate the outcomes from the implementation of your program.
Quality Improvement in Program Planning
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Given the complex nature of quality improvement and the various requirements for building and
maintaining continuous effects and sustained outcomes in program planning, it is crucial to apply
a process for identifying the multiple problems and solving them. As such, the quality
improvement process should focus on providing ongoing education and training for the relevant
stakeholders in the tools, principles, and techniques applied (Taylor et al. 2018). Therefore,
quality improvement in program planning plays a fundamental role in monitoring high-risk
aspects of the program that are prone to problems. It further facilitates the advancement of
desired outcomes through the identification of the issues, the implementation, and monitoring of
corrective action, and the determination of their effectiveness (Taylor et al. 2018). For instance,
quality improvement in planning a program in primary care facilitates the attainment of goals
such as boosting the population’s welfare, the enhancement of their experiences and outcomes,
and the reduction of the relative costs incurred.
Moreover, the creation of high-value of the programs implemented in healthcare, most
organizations have applied the patient-centered medical (PCMH) approach in redesigning their
practices. However, the attainment of this objective necessitates the adoption and incorporation
of a quality improvement tool that facilitates the evaluation of the outcomes for the
implementation of a program (Taylor et al. 2018). For instance, in the implementation of the
health communication intervention that endeavors reducing diabetes incidence among
adolescents, the appropriate tool for evaluating the outcomes entails the model propagated by the
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
The IHI model for improvement would focus on setting goals and teambuilding practices
that facilitate the attainment of desirable change. The achievement of this objective would occur
through the promotion of development by answering questions such as what the intervention
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seeks to accomplish. These would be coupled with finding answers to questions such as how
changes in the intervention will translate to improvement and which among them would allow
the program to achieve desired goals (Taylor et al. 2018). Ultimately, the answers to these
questions would be obtained through a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle that tests proposed
change or the quality improvement initiative in the actual work setting.
References
Taylor, E. F., Peikes, D., Geonnotti, K., McNellis, R., Genevro, J., & Meyers, D. (2018,
September). Quality Improvement in Primary Care- External Supports for Practices.
