HP Quality Assurance & Improvement 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, which phase involves analyzing data to determine if the planned change achieved the desired outcome?
- Plan
- Do
- Check (Correct answer)
- Act
Correct answer: Check
The Check phase involves measuring and analyzing results against the goals established during the Plan phase.
Question 2: A hospital's honors program tracks medication error rates monthly. After implementing a new barcode scanning system, errors dropped from 12 to 2 per month. What type of quality improvement is this?
- Process redesign (Correct answer)
- Incremental improvement
- Benchmarking
- Root cause elimination
Correct answer: Process redesign
Replacing a manual system with automated barcode scanning is process redesign, a fundamental change to how the work is performed.
Question 3: Which statistical tool is BEST suited for identifying the most frequent causes of a quality problem to prioritize improvement efforts?
- Control chart
- Scatter diagram
- Pareto chart (Correct answer)
- Histogram
Correct answer: Pareto chart
A Pareto chart ranks causes by frequency, visually highlighting which few causes account for the majority of problems (the 80/20 rule).
Question 4: An honors program student notices that patient satisfaction scores vary widely depending on which nurse is on duty. This variability is BEST described as:
- Common cause variation
- Special cause variation (Correct answer)
- Acceptable variation
- Measurement error
Correct answer: Special cause variation
Special cause variation arises from specific, identifiable factors (here, individual nurse practices) rather than the random noise inherent in a process.
Question 5: Which of the following BEST describes the purpose of a run chart in quality improvement?
- To compare two variables for correlation
- To display data over time and detect trends or shifts (Correct answer)
- To categorize defects by type
- To map the steps in a process
Correct answer: To display data over time and detect trends or shifts
A run chart plots data points in time sequence, making it easy to spot trends, cycles, or shifts that suggest process changes.
Question 6: In quality improvement, a 'fishbone diagram' is primarily used to:
- Track defect rates over time
- Identify potential causes of a problem (Correct answer)
- Set measurable improvement targets
- Assign accountability for corrective actions
Correct answer: Identify potential causes of a problem
A fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram organizes potential causes of a problem into categories, facilitating root cause analysis.
Question 7: A quality team wants to test a small-scale change before full implementation. This approach is known as:
- Benchmarking
- A pilot study (Correct answer)
- Gap analysis
- Failure mode analysis
Correct answer: A pilot study
A pilot study tests a change on a small scale to evaluate feasibility and impact before committing to organization-wide implementation.
HP Quality Assurance & Improvement 2
In a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, which phase involves analyzing data to determine if the planned change achieved the desired outcome?