introduction: various types of software are used in health care organizations to manage information and care processes. the quality of software has been an important concern for both health authorities and designers of health information technology. thus, assessing the effect of software quality on the performance quality of healthcare institutions is essential. method: the most important healt...

BACKGROUND Quality improvement is attracting the attention of the primary health care system as a means by which to achieve higher quality patient care. Ontario, Canada has demonstrated leadership in terms of its improvement in healthcare, but the province lacks a structured framework by which it can consistently evaluate its quality improvement initiatives specific to the primary healthcare sy...

Healthcare providers in the United States are facing increasing pressures to provide high quality healthcare at affordable prices, while being compliant with a multitude of complex laws. Recent legal developments have highlighted the role of Information Technology and related systems in providing evidence based healthcare in an efficient manner. Health Informatics has become an integral part of...

Healthcare analytics practitioner and author Trevor Strome shares his experience developing and implementing innovative analytics tools for use in healthcare organizations to illustrate how and why clinical, business, quality improvement, and technology professionals must foster an innovative and collaborative spirit in their fields in order to achieve safer, more effective, and efficient patie...

A dinner for healthcare leaders at the 6th National Conference on Quality featured a conversation with Maureen Bisognano, Executive VP and COO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). IHI is a leading source of innovation in the improvement of healthcare. The conversation was facilitated by G. Ross Baker, professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the U...

As society moves into the age of active knowledge management and sharing, inter-clinician relationships and communities of practice can be directed to support quality improvement efforts within healthcare organizations. It is argued that successful adoption of the processes that are critical to quality improvement is necessary for durable improvements in quality. Knowledge sharing is necessary ...

Evaluating the investment that healthcare organisations make in quality improvement requires knowledge of impact at multiple levels, including patient care, workforce and other organisational resources. The degree to which these resources help organisations to survive and thrive in the challenging contexts in which healthcare is designed and delivered is unknown. Investigating this question fro...

This presentation argues that a systems approach can significantly enhance healthcare improvement efforts in patient safety, service quality, and healthcare cost containment. The application of systems thinking to healthcare improvement encompasses three key principles: systems perspective of healthcare processes, structured problem-solving, and the closed-loop of continuous system improvement....

INTRODUCTION The article describes evaluation of the first year of implementation of a process-management project and a quality-improvement programme linked to economic incentives carried out at CAPSE (Consortium of Primary Healthcare of Eixample, Barcelona City, Catalonia, Spain). OBJECTIVE To evaluate the changes and to describe the experience of a variable payment scheme linked to quality ...

Healthcare quality improvement has the potential to reduce the striking disparities in health outcomes among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Donabedian's framework for assessment of healthcare quality, which divides factors impacting quality into structures, processes and outcomes, provides a theoretical framework for research and interventions in quality improvement. This rev...