Getting the most out of continuous quality improvement: Maximizing team and departmental implementation.

Abstract

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is a set of constructs, principles, and tools aimed at continually improving organizational processes. While thousands of organizations worldwide have adopted CQI, there are still many gaps in our knowledge of how to get the most out of CQI efforts. This paper addresses several of these gaps, including the limitations of existing CQI theory and the inconsistencies regarding the implementation of CQI at team and departmental levels. After discussing the basic principles of CQI, a framework for understanding and utilizing CQI is offered. Then, the results of 102 interviews, conducted with team leaders and department heads in a large hospital in the Southwestern United States, are presented. These results suggest that CQI team effectiveness is most influenced by goal specificity, team composition, and team leader training in statistical process control (SPC). Other factors, including team leader attitude toward CQI and team CQI skills, were also related to CQI team effectiveness. Departmental results were less clear. Only department head attitude toward CQI was significantly correlated with departmental CQI implementation. Potential meanings and implications of these findings are discussed, suggestions for implementing CQI in teams and departments are offered, and directions for future research are provided.