Few healthcare systems are exempt from a seemingly constant cycle of reform and this is particularly apparent in the USA and England at present. In part this is driven by the need to provide more cost-effective care, and hence savings, but also by an increased awareness of variable quality of care for patients. Even so, large-scale reorganization and reform is often undertaken with little thoug...

background and objectives: there is a growing tendency in iran’s health sector for adoption of standard excellence models for improving quality in healthcare organizations. the european foundation of quality management (efqm) model is a widely used framework for continuous quality management within healthcare facilities. the purpose of this article is to extend the view of current status of qua...

Surveillance of healthcare-associated infections is a cornerstone of infection prevention programs, and reporting of infection rates is increasingly required. Traditionally, surveillance is based on manual medical records review; however, this is very labor intensive and vulnerable to misclassification. Existing electronic surveillance systems based on classification algorithms using microbiolo...

OBJECTIVE To systematically review the literature regarding how statistical process control--with control charts as a core tool--has been applied to healthcare quality improvement, and to examine the benefits, limitations, barriers and facilitating factors related to such application. DATA SOURCES Original articles found in relevant databases, including Web of Science and Medline, covering th...

Chalmers Publication Library (CPL) offers the possibility of retrieving research publications produced at Chalmers University of Technology. It covers all types of publications: articles, dissertations, licentiate theses, masters theses, conference papers, reports etc. Since 2006 it is the official tool for Chalmers official publication statistics. To ensure that Chalmers research results are d...

To cite: Ranney ML, Genes N. BMJ Qual Saf Published Online First: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2015004827 Two articles 2 describe the use of social media to describe or potentiate healthcare quality improvement. Taken together, these articles point to an exciting—but still nascent—trend. We hope that these two pilot studies will be taken as a call to future research rather ...

These are uncertain times, we seem to be on unfamiliar journeys, and there is a deep sense of the need and hope for leadership of the changes we face and that are struggling to be named. Each problem seems to ‘cry out in a private language.’ How in this context are leaders to make sense of the situation they face? Each leader has two realities to serve: the current situation and the future that...

Background and Aim: The growing healthcare expenses, technological advancements and increasing competition in healthcare services, brings up new challenges for healthcare industry in providing appropriate services to customers. The Lean methodology, which is a managerial approach, provides tools necessary to eliminate waste and increase customer satisfaction through increasing quality of the se...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate a programme in which quality improvement was facilitated, based on principles of total quality management, in primary healthcare teams, and to determine its feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness, and the duration of its effect. METHOD Primary healthcare teams in Leicestershire (n = 147) were invited to take part in the facilitated programme. The programme comprised ...

Results: It is argued that the model of judgement used makes various assumptions which throw into doubt the notion that such inspections provide an objective picture of quality in healthcare. However, the contrary view, that such inspections are highly subjective, is rejected in favour of developing a perspective informed by the later philosophy of Wittgenstein; one which recognises the importa...