RCEM QUALITY IMPROVEMENT GUIDE

Appendix 1: Definitions
Quality
Safe, Effective, Patient Centred, Equitable, Efficient and
Timely (IOM)
Safety; clinical outcomes; and patient experience. NHS
Quality
Improvement
Better patient experience and outcomes achieved through
changing provider behaviour and organisation through using
a systematic change method and strategies (Ovreveit)
Patient Safety
National and Local
Clinical Audit
Prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients
associated with health care (WHO)
A quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient
care and outcomes through systematic review of care
against explicit criteria and the implementation of change
Rapid Cycle Audit
An adjunct to audit whereby very quick audits are performed
on a few cases and standards to try and effect ‘real time’
change
Plan, Do, Study, Act A quality improvement method, often combined with the
Model for Improvement (see examples)
Model for
Improvement
Healthcare Failure
Modes and Effects
Analysis
Lean
Six Sigma
Run Chart
Statistical Process
Control Chart
A quality improvement method, with PDSA cycles as an
integral part (see examples)
A quality improvement method that proactively identifies
deficiencies in care (see examples)
A quality improvement method useful for identifying
inefficiencies in care, often combined with Six Sigma (see
examples)
A quality improvement method useful for identifying
inefficiencies in care, often combined with Lean (see
examples)
An analytical tool allowing the visual display of the data
collected over time against a threshold
A graph used to study how a process changes over time.
Data are plotted in time order. A control chart always has a
central line for the average, an upper line for the upper
control limit and a lower line for the lower control limit.
RCEM Quality Improvement Guide (2016) Page: 46