CED Quality Assurance & Improvement 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A continuous quality improvement (CQI) culture requires which leadership behavior from an executive director?
- Limiting quality reviews to annual board meetings
- Modeling openness to feedback and treating failures as learning opportunities (Correct answer)
- Delegating all quality decisions to the program director
- Focusing quality efforts only on externally funded programs
Correct answer: Modeling openness to feedback and treating failures as learning opportunities
Executive directors foster CQI culture by demonstrating that feedback is welcomed and mistakes drive learning, not punishment.
Question 2: Which tool is most appropriate for identifying the most frequent causes of a quality problem in a nonprofit's service delivery?
- SWOT analysis
- Pareto chart (Correct answer)
- Gantt chart
- Balanced scorecard
Correct answer: Pareto chart
A Pareto chart displays causes by frequency, helping teams focus on the vital few causes responsible for most defects.
Question 3: An executive director is implementing fidelity monitoring for an evidence-based program. What does program fidelity monitoring assess?
- Whether the program budget aligns with grant requirements
- Whether the program is implemented as designed and with sufficient adherence to the model (Correct answer)
- Whether clients are satisfied with program staff
- Whether staff turnover rates affect program costs
Correct answer: Whether the program is implemented as designed and with sufficient adherence to the model
Fidelity monitoring ensures the program is delivered consistently with its evidence-based design to maintain effectiveness.
Question 4: During a PDSA cycle, the 'Study' phase involves which activity?
- Designing the improvement intervention
- Analyzing results to determine whether the change produced the expected improvement (Correct answer)
- Rolling out the change organization-wide
- Identifying the problem statement
Correct answer: Analyzing results to determine whether the change produced the expected improvement
The Study phase compares actual results to predictions, drawing lessons to inform the next cycle.
Question 5: A client complaint management system is best described as which type of quality mechanism?
- A leading indicator of program outcomes
- A feedback loop that identifies service gaps and drives corrective action (Correct answer)
- A lagging financial control tool
- A staffing performance appraisal method
Correct answer: A feedback loop that identifies service gaps and drives corrective action
Complaint systems capture client experiences, feeding information back into the organization to identify and correct service failures.
Question 6: Which approach best describes 'upstream' quality improvement in nonprofit service delivery?
- Addressing problems after clients have exited the program
- Identifying and correcting process failures before they affect client outcomes (Correct answer)
- Focusing improvement efforts on the highest-cost program components
- Reviewing quality only in response to funder audits
Correct answer: Identifying and correcting process failures before they affect client outcomes
Upstream quality improvement intervenes in processes before defects reach clients, reducing rework and client harm.
Question 7: An executive director's organization receives accreditation from an external body. Which quality improvement value does accreditation primarily represent?
- It guarantees increased government funding for three years
- It provides external validation that the organization meets established quality standards (Correct answer)
- It eliminates the need for internal quality audits
- It certifies that all staff are licensed professionals
Correct answer: It provides external validation that the organization meets established quality standards
Accreditation demonstrates to stakeholders that the organization's practices have been independently verified against recognized quality standards.
CED Quality Assurance & Improvement 3
A continuous quality improvement (CQI) culture requires which leadership behavior from an executive director?