Quality improvement in healthcare is the continuous study and improvement of the processes of providing healthcare services to meet the needs of patients and others.
At Marietta Memorial Hospital the Quality Council is a group of senior leaders and others who are responsible for overseeing the quality process. These leaders foster performance improvement and patient safety improvement through planning, educating, setting priorities, providing support such as time and resources and empowering staff as appropriate, to continuously be aware of opportunities for improvement in quality of care and patient safety.
Marietta Memorial System has adopted the problem solving process PDCA:
PLAN
- Improvement by studying a process or problem
- Use Data to assess process/problem
- Set priorities for improvement
- Plan Action
DO
- Carry out the planned action(s) as a pilot
CHECK
- Check process for improvement
- Use data to show improvement
- Modify process, if necessary
ACT
- Fully implement the improvement
- Check periodically to assure process still working
By applying this scientific method to raw facts and figures, we have a greater opportunity to make significant impacts on clinical processes and overall health status of our patients.