Practice-based improvement ideas in healthcare services
2010 (English)Conference paper, Published paper (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
Objective. The present study will contribute to knowledge of how practitioners in a healthcare region engage in quality improvement initiatives. The focus is on individual placement needs, problems/issues and the ability to organize work on the development, implementation and institutionalization of ideas for the healthcare sector.
Design and settings. This study is based on the Kalmar county council Improvement Program. Healthcare departments and primary healthcare centers in the county council were invited to apply for money to accomplish improvement projects. The aim is to empirically identify and present the different kinds of practice-based improvement ideas developed in healthcare services. The 202 applications received from various healthcare departments and primary healthcare centers are analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
Outcome and Results. Five types of improvement projects were identified: Organizational Process; Evidence and Quality; Competence Development; Process Technology; and Proactive Patient Work. This illustrates the range of strategies that encourage letting individual units define their own improvement needs. In addition, a common characteristic among the studied project applications is to increase patient safety, effectiveness and availability of care, and education/training. Those intentions are found in many of the applications and therefore give the impression of being most important to caregivers today.
Conclusions. These projects point to the various problems and experiences healthcare professionals encounter in their day-to-day work. This paper provides valuable insights into the current state of improvement work in Swedish healthcare, and will serve as a foundation for further investigations in this quality program.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2010.
Keywords [en]
Quality improvement initiatives, healthcare settings, improvement projects
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:rkh:diva-748OAI: oai:DiVA.org:rkh-748DiVA, id: diva2:683255
Conference
12th International QMOD and Toulon-Verona Conference on Quality and Service Sciences (ICQSS) 27-29 August 2009, Verona, Italy
2014-01-032014-01-032015-10-15Bibliographically approved