HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS AND QUALITY OUTCOMES

Project 1: Promoting Health Care Quality

Section 3: Quality Measurement and Assessment

Measuring and assessing quality provides a foundation for identifying needs for improvement, developing effective interventions, and then monitoring progress toward desired results.

In the Sadeghi, Barzi, Mikhail, and Shabot text, the authors assert that an effort to improve quality “calls for setting outcome and performance targets (goals and expectations) beginning with the end in mind, and then formulating initiatives and actions (processes) that can serve as a bridge to take the organization from its current performance to its desired performance” (p. 182).

Having this “end in mind” can provide justification for dedicating valuable resources toward the effort, and help to lay a clear, concrete path that takes the organization from uncovering gaps between current performance and evidence-based targets to actually achieving those goals.

In this section of the Course Project, you focus on what you would measure—and how you would measure it—relative to your previously identified quality improvement issue. Note: This section of the Course Project will serve as the Portfolio Assignment for this course.

Through your work in previous weeks of this course, you have likely gained critical insights into the organization that serves as the focus for your quality improvement plan. Integrating this knowledge of the organization into your plan for addressing a quality improvement issue is essential for successfully facilitating change.

As you deepen your analysis of your selected organization, consider how the information presented in this week’s Learning Resources relates to strategic priorities as well as to the uniquely collaborative and competitive dynamic that binds organizations in health care.