Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative
The QI Team
We’ve all heard that healthcare delivery is delivered within a “system.” What does that mean? It means that most processes, problems, and successes are the product of groups of people acting together. While in theory any individual can do a QI project by him or herself, most projects will be conducted by groups of people involved in the targeted process.
The easiest and probably most successful way to learn and do QI is to assemble a team of “stakeholders”--individuals that represent groups that that are involved in and want to solve problems. Optimally, there should be representation from any group in the organization that “touches” service delivery. Major examples would be physicians, nurses, utilization reviewers, administrators, practice managers, etc.
Teams can get too big--if you get more than 8-10 people the team meetings and discussions can get unwieldy. This may mean making some choices about the key groups to participate or, conversely, assembling project teams whose composition varies depending on the targeted process for improvement. If team members will vary by project, it will be important to have some individuals that are constant across the various project teams.
Teams are most effective when participants are willing and interested. At the same time, QI cannot really succeed without some buy-in from organizational leaders. Selection of team members should therefore be done in consultation with organization leaders, who can assist in identifying interested and appropriate members and are able to authorize the time for them to participate.
The team should be involved in designing and overseeing all of the steps in the QI process. This does not mean that each of them will be involved in the nuts and bolts of every step along the way, but everyone should be aware of the purpose, progress, basic design and outcomes of every project.
Teams should meet on a regular schedule. The frequency of this may vary, but no fewer than quarterly meetings are recommended for measurable success to occur. Intervening meetings may be necessary at times. Each team meeting should end with consensus about when the next meeting should happen.
More information about teams can be obtained by clicking on one of the following links.
