Change measurement workshops coming to Atlantic provinces
Monday October 15, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
In a bid to help organizations involved in the Safer Healthcare Now (SHN) campaign increase their capacity for implementing quality improvement changes, the Atlantic Node is hosting Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle workshops.

The PDSA cycle is a scientific method of testing an idea by putting change into effect on a temporary basis and studying its potential impact. By building on the learning from these test cycles in a controlled and incremental way, new ideas can be implemented with a greater chance of success.

As part of the improvement model leading up to the use PDSA cycles, there are three questions hospitals must ask themselves.

The first is, ‘what are we trying to accomplish?’ The second is, ‘how will we know if a change is an improvement?’ And the third is, ‘what changes can we make that will result in improvement?’

Dannie Currie, a safety improvement advisor with the Atlantic Node, says SHN teams are encouraged to identify those changes and then use the PDSA cycle to guide their work.

“What we do know, particularly from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) experience, is that using PDSAs is probably the most effective way to accelerate quality improvement changes within an institution,” Currie says, adding the use of PDSA cycles defies convention when it comes to implementing quality improvement in healthcare settings.

“Traditionally, we’ve been set up into quality departments that looked at developing the product or service detached from the people who would actually deliver it,” Currie says. “This model looks at engaging people at multiple levels within the organization to advance the quality agenda.”

Currie says the PDSA concept is decades old and was developed for use in industry prior to being adapted to the healthcare setting, noting that IHI was either the first or one of the first groups to look at the PDSA cycle as a quality improvement tool for healthcare organizations.

Currie says he believes measurement to be the most significant driver when it comes to creating change.

“Using the improvement model, which includes the PDSA cycle, is a relatively new concept for most people in health quality improvement in Canada,” he says. “In the Atlantic provinces, I think there is a need to build that capacity.”

One workshop is being held in each Atlantic province starting Oct. 31 and continuing through the month of November. There is a $200 registration fee. To view the workshop brochure in a pdf format or to register, click here or visit www.saferhealthcarenow.ca.