QI Spotlight

I Was Just Hired as a Performance Improvement Professional - Now What?

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Quality Improvement Myths: Busted!

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Quality Planning: A Quick "How-To" Guide

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Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? Deciding When to Use QI

Quality improvement (QI) is a formal, structured way to address problems. It involves using a defined improvement process (e.g., Plan, Do, Check, Act cycles; Kaizen; Lean Six Sigma) to identify the underlying cause of a problem, test solutions, and achieve measurable improvements. Anyone who has engaged in QI knows that it requires expertise, a team’s time and energy, and ongoing efforts to monitor and hold the gains. Given the demands of a QI effort, it is important to understand when QI is needed to achieve an improvement—and when it is not.

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Choosing a QI Project

To truly have a culture of quality, ongoing quality improvement (QI) efforts must be occurring at all levels of the agency, from executive leadership to front-line staff. This article attempts to provide public health practitioners with a step-by-step approach for choosing a QI project. This three-step approach can assist in choosing a QI project by generating and prioritizing a list of ideas.

 

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QI at Work: Strategies to Increase Immunization Rates among Children and Adolescents

Health departments can benefit from learning strategies that have been tested as part of these QI efforts and that potentially can be adapted and adopted in other community settings. The following article highlights themes across six projects focused on childhood and adolescent immunizations. It also provides documentation that may be helpful to health departments seeking to improve vaccination levels among children and adolescents, and includes links to the PHQIX submissions for those who would like additional information.

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Using Customer Satisfaction Surveys to Assess the Quality of Programs and Services

High-performing health departments continually improve by assessing the quality of programs and services and by acting on identified opportunities for improvement. Customer surveys are a common method to capture real-time information and data about the quality of programs and services from the viewpoint of those being served. If planned and executed carefully, customer surveys can capture customer feedback that can then be used to plan for improvements

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Developing and Using SMART Objectives

Within the makings of a QI project, once the goal statement is complete defining SMART objectives will help move the idea into action. This transition from planning to action occurs because objectives provide the project with a direction so that a clear process improvement can be planned. The clearer the objectives, the more successful the project will be. This article will explain what a SMART objective is and how to write a SMART objective for your own QI project.

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The Role and Necessity of Quality Leaders in Public Health

Two important QI leadership roles, the QI coach and QI champion, are often referred to in public health circles. This article describes the role and necessity of QI coaches and champions and will provide examples from PHQIX submissions, highlighting examples of QI leaders in action.

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Root Cause: The Foundation of Successful Improvement

Article #2 spotlights Root Cause: The Foundation of Successful Improvement

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What are goal and aim statements and why are they important?

Clear goals and aims facilitate success by eliminating confusion within an organization, a project, or a task. When developed and written carefully they increase the effectiveness and efficiency of any team or effort. Learn more about how to develop effective goals, aim statements, and see highly regarded examples from PHQIX that will help you improve your QI initiatives.

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