scholarly journals Improvement Science: conceptual and theoretical foundations for its application to healthcare quality improvement

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (suppl 2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margareth Crisóstomo Portela ◽  
Sheyla Maria Lemos Lima ◽  
Mônica Martins ◽  
Claudia Travassos
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Healthcare Quality ◽  
Improvement Science ◽  
Healthcare Quality Improvement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Improvement Interventions ◽  
Quality Improvement Interventions ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

Abstract: The development and study of healthcare quality improvement interventions have been reshaped, moving from more intuitive approaches, dominated by biomedical vision and premised on easy transferability, to gradually acknowledge the need for more planning and systematization, with greater incorporation of the social sciences and enhancement of the role of context. Improvement Science has been established, with a conceptual and methodological framework for such studies. Considering the incipient of the debate and scientific production on Improvement Science in Brazil, this article aims to expound its principal conceptual and theoretical fundamentals, focusing on three central themes: the linkage of different disciplines; recognition of the role of context; and the theoretical basis for the design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions.

The Social Role of Technology in Healthcare Quality Improvement

2012 ◽  
pp. 178-186
Author(s):  
Anastasia K. Kadda
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Healthcare Quality ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Healthcare Quality Improvement ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The Social

The aim of this study is to describe the social role of technology in healthcare quality improvement. Methodologically, the study was based on a review of the relevant literature, Greek and foreign, as well as Internet sources related to the social role of technology in healthcare quality improvement. The main conclusions drawn were the following: a) The development of new technologies in the field of health and their involvement within the social context is today a fast accelerating process; b) The presentday expansion of health-oriented technology is of vital importance because of current trends in the field of healthcare and of the social evolution on healthcare services; c) Information technology is capable of profoundly contributing to the improvement of the quality of health, and thus to the wellbeing of the citizens in a society; d) By the use of health technology, more efficient and productive financial management is achieved with numerous benefits for the economy; e) Electronic health can improve the quality of healthcare thereby facilitating the work of health professionals; f) Greek society is being increasingly influenced by both international and domestic scientific and technological advances in health technology despite the existence of significant legal barriers; g) Current trends in the European Union as far as health technology is concerned are intimately connected with expanding citizen participation in the electronic revolution and their increasing access to the Information Society.

scholarly journals The role of the practice facilitators in Ontario primary healthcare quality improvement

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jyoti Kotecha ◽  
Han Han ◽  
Michael Green ◽  
Grant Russell ◽  
Mary I Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Primary Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Quality ◽  
Healthcare Quality Improvement

The use of process mapping in healthcare quality improvement projects

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grazia Antonacci ◽  
Julie E Reed ◽  
Laura Lennox ◽  
James Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Healthcare Quality ◽  
Process Mapping ◽  
Healthcare Quality Improvement ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Multiple Data ◽  
Five Factors ◽  
Improvement Interventions ◽  
Service Data

Introduction Process mapping provides insight into systems and processes in which improvement interventions are introduced and is seen as useful in healthcare quality improvement projects. There is little empirical evidence on the use of process mapping in healthcare practice. This study advances understanding of the benefits and success factors of process mapping within quality improvement projects. Methods Eight quality improvement projects were purposively selected from different healthcare settings within the UK’s National Health Service. Data were gathered from multiple data-sources, including interviews exploring participants’ experience of using process mapping in their projects and perceptions of benefits and challenges related to its use. These were analysed using inductive analysis. Results Eight key benefits related to process mapping use were reported by participants (gathering a shared understanding of the reality; identifying improvement opportunities; engaging stakeholders in the project; defining project's objectives; monitoring project progress; learning; increased empathy; simplicity of the method) and five factors related to successful process mapping exercises (simple and appropriate visual representation, information gathered from multiple stakeholders, facilitator’s experience and soft skills, basic training, iterative use of process mapping throughout the project). Conclusions Findings highlight benefits and versatility of process mapping and provide practical suggestions to improve its use in practice.

scholarly journals Talking it better: conversations and normative complexity in healthcare improvement

2021 ◽  
pp. medhum-2020-012129
Author(s):  
Alan Cribb ◽  
Vikki Entwistle ◽  
Polly Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Healthcare Quality ◽  
Inherent Difficulty ◽  
Healthcare Quality Improvement ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Healthcare Improvement

In this paper, we consider the role of conversations in contributing to healthcare quality improvement. More specifically, we suggest that conversations can be important in responding to what we call ‘normative complexity’. As well as reflecting on the value of conversations, the aim is to introduce the dimension of normative complexity as something that requires theoretical and practical attention alongside the more recognised challenges of complex systems, which we label, for short, as ‘explanatory complexity’. In brief, normative complexity relates to the inherent difficulty of deciding what kinds of changes are ‘improvements’ or, more broadly, what is valuable in healthcare. We suggest that explanatory and normative complexity intersect and that anyone interested in healthcare improvement needs to be sensitive to both. After briefly introducing the idea of normative complexity, we consider some contrasting examples of conversations, reflecting on how they do and might contribute to healthcare quality. We discuss both conversations that are deliberately organised and facilitated (‘orchestrated conversations’) and more informally occurring and routine conversations. In the first half of the paper, we draw on some examples of orchestrated and routine conversations to open up these issues. In the second half of the paper, we bring some more theoretical lenses to bear on both conversations and normative complexity, summarise what we take to be the value of conversations and draw together some of the implications of our discussion. In summary, we argue that conversations can play a crucial role in negotiating the normative complexity of healthcare quality improvement because of their capacity to hold together a plurality of perspectives, to contribute and respond to emergence and to help underpin institutional conditions for empathy and imagination.

Concluding Summary

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Figdor
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research ◽  
Internal And External Factors ◽  
Conceptual Confusion

Chapter 10 provides a summary of the argument of the book. It elaborates some of the benefits of Literalism, such as less conceptual confusion and an expanded range of entities for research that might illuminate human cognition. It motivates distinguishing the questions of whether something has a cognitive capacity from whether it is intuitively like us. It provides a conceptual foundation for the social sciences appropriate for the increasing role of modeling in these sciences. It also promotes convergence in terms of the roles of internal and external factors in explaining both human and nonhuman behavior. Finally, it sketches some of the areas of new research that it supports, including group cognition and artificial intelligence.

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