CALA CALA Quality Assurance & Improvement 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does the PDSA cycle stand for in quality improvement methodology?
- Plan, Do, Study, Act (Correct answer)
- Prepare, Deploy, Sustain, Assess
- Prevent, Detect, Solve, Analyze
- Prioritize, Diagnose, Supervise, Achieve
Correct answer: Plan, Do, Study, Act
PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) is a cyclical quality improvement framework where changes are planned, implemented on a small scale, studied for effectiveness, and then acted upon to spread or adjust the improvement.
Question 2: Which type of data is most useful for tracking trends in quality indicators over time in an assisted living facility?
- Anecdotal staff reports
- Quantitative data collected consistently over defined time periods and displayed in run charts or control charts (Correct answer)
- Annual survey responses only
- Informal observations by management
Correct answer: Quantitative data collected consistently over defined time periods and displayed in run charts or control charts
Quantitative data collected consistently over time and displayed in run charts or control charts allows administrators to identify trends, patterns, and whether interventions are producing improvement.
Question 3: What is an 'adverse event' in the context of assisted living quality reporting?
- A negative annual survey result
- An unintended harmful outcome experienced by a resident, such as a fall, medication error, or elopement (Correct answer)
- A budget deficit reported to ownership
- A staff turnover rate above the industry average
Correct answer: An unintended harmful outcome experienced by a resident, such as a fall, medication error, or elopement
An adverse event is an unintended harmful outcome affecting a resident, such as a fall resulting in injury, medication error, or unexpected decline in health status.
Question 4: Which quality improvement concept focuses on reducing unnecessary variation in care processes to improve consistency and outcomes?
- Standardization of care processes and protocols (Correct answer)
- Individualized care planning for each resident
- Staff self-scheduling
- Decentralized decision-making
Correct answer: Standardization of care processes and protocols
Standardizing care processes reduces unnecessary variation, ensuring that evidence-based practices are consistently applied across all staff and shifts, which improves resident outcomes.
Question 5: In a quality meeting, an administrator presents data showing the fall rate increased after a staffing change. What should the quality team do next?
- Immediately return to the previous staffing model without analysis
- Analyze possible causal relationships between the staffing change and falls, then test a targeted intervention (Correct answer)
- Ignore the data if the increase is less than 10%
- Blame individual staff members for the increase
Correct answer: Analyze possible causal relationships between the staffing change and falls, then test a targeted intervention
The team should analyze the potential relationship between the staffing change and the fall rate increase, then design and test a targeted intervention to address the identified root cause.
Question 6: What is the purpose of an 'incident report' in assisted living quality assurance?
- To document events for potential legal action only
- To record details of adverse events or near-misses for analysis, tracking, and quality improvement purposes (Correct answer)
- To satisfy marketing disclosure requirements
- To report to families as a billing supplement
Correct answer: To record details of adverse events or near-misses for analysis, tracking, and quality improvement purposes
Incident reports document the details of adverse events and near-misses, providing data essential for trend analysis, root cause investigation, regulatory compliance, and quality improvement planning.
CALA CALA Quality Assurance & Improvement 2
What does the PDSA cycle stand for in quality improvement methodology?