Introduction

Wanting care to be better is not the same as making it better. Quality improvement is the structured, systematic discipline of actually improving how care is delivered — by setting a clear aim, testing changes on a small scale, measuring their effect with real data, and learning quickly. The best-known approach in healthcare, the Model for Improvement with its Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, lets teams try ideas safely and refine them. Other methods — Lean for reducing waste, Six Sigma for reducing errors and variation — add their own strengths. This course works through what quality improvement is, the Model for Improvement, the PDSA cycle, Lean, Six Sigma, the tools of QI, and how to make improvement continuous.