HA 410 - Quality in Healthcare Administration

• Discuss the elements of an effective continuous quality improvement program to include strategic focus of support, a systems view to improvement, and a whole systems approach toward outcomes.
• Illustrate the importance of using data and measurement to assess current status, analyze and improve processes, and track progress to affect outcomes.  Identify the tools and methods used to collect and provide data and information to include quality methodologies, plan-do-study/check-act (PDSA), means of display (flowcharts, run charts, cause-and-effect diagrams), and the use of benchmarking in creation of improvements.
• Explain the importance of high-performing teams to quality improvement efforts.  Describe the elements necessary for effective teams, the benefits of using teams in a learning organization, and the outcomes impact when teams are empowered.
• Demonstrate the importance of the voice of the customer in continuous quality improvement in health care.  Define the approaches for eliciting and analyzing internal and external customers’ requirements, expectations, levels of satisfaction, and areas of concern.
• Interpret the involvement and effect of external facilitators of improvement to include regulatory agencies, payers, quality improvement organizations (QIO).
• Characterize the elements important to a learning organization including change management (including transformational change in continuous quality improvement), decision-making related to continuous quality improvement, and innovation.