Quality Assurance and Improvement Flashcards

A quality team wants to understand the sequence of steps in an admission process to identify bottlenecks. The best tool to use is a:

Answer: Flowchart

A flowchart maps out each step and decision point in a process sequentially, making it easy to identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks.

In quality management, 'reliability' of a care process refers to:

Answer: Performing the right care every time for every patient

Reliability means consistently delivering evidence-based care processes to every eligible patient without failure.

Which of the following is an example of an 'outcome measure' in healthcare quality?

Answer: Rate of hospital-acquired infections

Outcome measures capture the results of care on patient health status, such as infection rates, mortality, or readmissions.

The Donabedian model evaluates healthcare quality using which three components?

Answer: Structure, Process, Outcome

Donabedian's model assesses quality through Structure (resources/environment), Process (care delivery), and Outcome (results).

When implementing a quality improvement change, spread refers to:

Answer: Expanding a successful change to other units or populations

Spread in quality improvement means deliberately scaling a tested, successful change to additional departments, sites, or populations.

Which concept describes unintended negative consequences introduced by a quality improvement intervention?

Answer: Balancing measures

Balancing measures track unintended side effects of a change to ensure improvement in one area doesn't cause problems elsewhere.

A quality improvement team is using a 'driver diagram.' The primary driver represents:

Answer: A key factor that directly influences the aim

Primary drivers are major factors or systems that directly influence achievement of the overall improvement aim.