Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative

Sustaining Improvement

Sustained improvement occurs when the team communicates with the project participants about what has been done and what results have been achieved.  To persist, changes should be:

•    recognized and accepted by the affected individuals
•    institutionalized into standard operating procedures
•    acknowledged and reinforced by leadership.


It will be important to continue to collect data periodically to document sustained performance.  After the initial attention has passed, the QI Team may see some regression in performance levels.  Alternatively, over time other improvement opportunities might emerge that are triggered by the original intervention.

While the team may move its active attention to new focus areas, continued monitoring of previous project areas will be necessary to insure sustained success.