Introduction Inspection and external review are increasingly used in healthcare systems throughout the world, in various forms, in pursuit of quality assurance and improvement. Although the experience of systems such as accreditation in those countries which have used them for decades is decidedly mixed, we are nevertheless witnessing what has been described as an explosion in external audit, r...

BACKGROUND In healthcare change interventions, on-the-ground learning about the implementation process is often lost because of a primary focus on outcome improvements. This paper describes the Learning Evaluation, a methodological approach that blends quality improvement and implementation research methods to study healthcare innovations. METHODS Learning Evaluation is an approach to multi-o...

Consumers in the United States are taking advantage of the proliferation of publicly available, internet-based performance reports and quality appraisals of health plans, healthcare organizations, hospitals, and physicians to aid in their healthcare decision making. However, these appraisal practices have given rise to controversy and debate over certain distinctive ethical issues. This article...

CONTEXT SCIENTIFIC AND THERAPEUTIC ADVANCES Remarkable biomedical research advances have led to innovative and increasingly effective therapies. We highlight several scientific milestones in elucidating the pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis (CF) and review the therapies that have become available over the past 20 years. IMPACT OF THE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE In 2002, the CF Foundation ...

PROBLEM In hospitals in rural, resource-limited settings, there is an acute need for simple, practical strategies to improve healthcare quality. SETTING A district hospital in remote western Nepal. KEY MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT To provide a mechanism for systems-level reflection so that staff can identify targets for quality improvement in healthcare delivery. Strategies for change To develo...

background a model of quality management called strategic collaborative quality management (scqm) model was developed based on the quality management literature review, the findings of a survey on quality management assessment in healthcare organisations, semi-structured interviews with healthcare stakeholders, and a delphi study on healthcare quality management experts. the purpose of this stu...

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...

While the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010 (ECFA Act) provides a comprehensive approach to stimulating quality improvement in healthcare, there are other examples of legislations articulating strategies aimed at the same goal but proposing different approaches. This paper reviews quality of care legislations in the Netherlands, the United States, England and Australia, compares those pieces of ...