Introduction for Health Care CQI Research Paper

Continuous quality improvement is an incessant process where feedback that is received from data monitoring enables the management of a system to put in place measures to enhance services delivery. This is a process that requires a continuous review of the progress that is made to find out if there is a possibility to fill any loopholes left in the course of service delivery. Continuous quality improvement is inspired by policies that are formulated by management and not the presence of a crisis. In essence, it is a process that foresees crisis and forestalls it. Continuous quality improvement puts in place methods for comparing input recourses with the outcome and suggests ways in which the outcome could be made better (Bean & Hussey, 2011). It is an approach that is aimed at improving accountability, staff morale, service delivery process, the flexibility that enables the staff adapts to changes, enhancing information management, and giving room for creative innovations to prevent any foreseeable problems.

Continuous quality improvement is an essential phenomenon in the medical field. Issues in health care are delicate, and it would be better if health services were improved in anticipation of challenges rather than in a rash manner. The administration and policy makers in the healthcare sector are hard-pressed to continuously seek how to improve hospitals’ care that they give to their customers so as to avoid potentially fatal situations. Therefore, the need for continuous quality improvement in the healthcare sector cannot be emphasized enough. Despite the fact that CQI has been used more extensively in the engineering and manufacturing fields, the underlying principles of CQI enable it to be applied effectively in medicine. This is because the practice of medicine requires the faculties of research, observation of the phenomenon, manipulation of variables, observation of results and eventually taking action if necessary. In the medical practice, where much value is placed in human life, CQI would come in handy to identify and improve services which will help in copping diseases and traumas.

CQI can be applied in many scenarios in a hospital environment. Data can be collected from diabetics, and these records should be used to develop diets and day regimes for them. Another scenario where CQI can be used in a hospital environment is in documenting all the pre-surgical measures taken for all patients going to surgery, and documenting those who suffer from post-surgical nosocomial infections. This may help the hospital administration come up with standard measures that will enable them to avoid hospital-acquired infections (Wheeler, et al, 2011). This is in line with the priorities that have been set in the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care, especially the first one, which is aimed at making medical care safer by reducing the harm caused in the delivery of services (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 2012).

Outside the hospital setting, CQI can be used in a number of industries. It can be used in manufacturing industries to increase production. In chemical industries, it can be used in obtaining the optimum conditions for production of compounds. In services delivery sector, it can be used to improve customer satisfaction. Educational systems have also adopted CQI in order to establish what educational programs suit students best and provide them with effective learning experiences (Day, Gardner & Herba, 2011). It also improves teacher-student interaction by creating new approaches in education building upon previous experiences. All in all, CQI can be applied in a plethora of situation, where it can improve the outcome of efforts.