Most mature organisations regularly undertake varying forms of business improvement activities, from specific operationally focused project activities to organisation-wide change initiatives. While the success of business improvement approaches is often debated, such initiatives always leave some form of trace or legacy behind, often in the form of specific processes and procedures, individual ...

The Hospital In-Patient Enquiry and National Perinatal Reporting System (HIPE & NPRS) Unit of the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland requested a review of its coder training programs and data quality initiatives, primarily because of the decision to implement a major change in Ireland's morbidity classification in January 2005. In August 2004, a formative evaluation using qualita...

Quality management has long been established as an important strategy for achieving competitive advantage. The aim of the businesses may differ, but the importance of customers is a matter of common interest. The ability of the organizations to adapt to new customer requirements in a globalized market is of vital importance for long-term success. Traditional quality initiatives such as statisti...

Postoperative complications are directly related to poor surgical outcomes in the elderly. This review outlines evidence based quality initiatives focused on decreasing neurologic, cardiac, and pulmonary complications in the elderly surgical patient. Important anesthesia quality initiatives for prevention of delirium, the most common neurologic complication in elderly surgical patients, are out...

Beginning with a brief overview of national health care quality improvement efforts, this article describes national initiatives to improve the quality of care and patient safety, along with the challenges of measuring quality of care in rural settings. Next, the article analyzes the performance of rural Minnesota hospitals in the Hospital Compare and Leapfrog initiatives and compares the resul...