Summary

Constructing a QI program begins with a basic understanding of the meth­odology associated with quality improvement. Important aspects of continu­ous QI involve selecting appropriate quality indicators, tracking them, and being able to identify important trends in the data.

The QI program provides a mechanism with which to review all activities related to patient care, communication, and transport operations; identify problems; resolve identified problems; monitor the implementa­tion of change; and provide ongoing reevaluation of strategies for process improvement. A mature QI program requires multidisciplinary commitment at multiple levels: clinical, financial, and administrative. A solid founda­tion (the transport program), a strong framework (the QI committee), and an insightful leader (the QI coordinator) are crucial to a neonatal-pediatric transport program's maintaining QI as one of its cornerstones. The transport program that continually strives to improve and promote safe, timely, appro­priate, and quality patient care will be in a better position to market its ser­vices and will rise to the challenges of the future.

References

1. Institute of Medicine, Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2001

2. Few S. Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media Inc; 2006

3. Carey R. Improving Healthcare with Control Charts: Basic and Advanced SPC Methods and Case Studies. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press; 2003

4. Langley GJ. The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance. 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2009

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

Selected Readings

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. AHRQ Tools and Resources for Better Health Care. Available at: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/tools/toolsria.htm. Accessed April 25, 2013

Carey R. Improving Healthcare with Control Charts: Basic and Advanced SPC Methods and Case Studies. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press; 2003

Donabedian A. An Introduction to Quality Assurance in Health Care. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2003

Few S. Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media Inc; 2006

George M. The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2005

Institute for Healthcare Improvement. How to Improve. Available at: http://www.ihi.org/IHI/ Topics/Improvement/ImprovementMethods/HowToImprove/. Accessed April 25, 2013 Schwartz H, Bigham M, Schoettker P, Meyer K, Trautman M, Insoft R. Pediatric critical care. 2015; in press

Wheeler D. Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos. 2nd ed. Knoxville, TN: SPC Press; 2000