Continuous Quality Improvement: Concepts and Applications for Physician Care

• Published in: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 266; no. 13; pp. 1817 - 1823
• Main Authors: Kritchevsky, Stephen B, Simmons, Bryan P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL American Medical Association 02-10-1991
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Continuity of Patient Care; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Health and social institutions; Health care; Health participants; Hospital Administration - standards; Medical sciences; Medical Staff, Hospital - education; Medical Staff, Hospital - standards; Methods; Outcome and Process Assessment (Health Care); Practice Patterns, Physicians' - statistics & numerical data; Problem Solving; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Quality Assurance, Health Care - organization & administration; Quality control; Systems Analysis; Physician; Health staff; Quality; Optimization; Public health; Care
• ISSN: 0098-7484; 1538-3598
• DOI: 10.1001/jama.1991.03470130097036

There has been a growing interest by health care leaders in the continuous quality improvement method of quality management. This method uses measurements of quality "indicators" to initiate and drive organizational changes in a never-ending cycle of continuous improvement. Many discussions of the continuous quality improvement method have emphasized the organizational and attitudinal changes necessary to fully implement the model while deemphasizing the uses of measures of quality to guide improvement. In this article, we emphasize the concepts behind the measurement of quality that underlie the continuous quality improvement model and give examples of how these concepts can be immediately applied to guide improvement in the quality of physician care.(JAMA. 1991;266:1817-1823)