Application of PDCA to Health Care Processes

         As a continuous quality improvement tool, PCDA are often applied to health care processes instead of individual patients. Although the target is different, the cycle still starts collecting background information and identifying problems under Plan. The managers have to keep in mind that the problem is the gap between the current state and the goal. The following the an application of PDCA cycle to the Emergency department.

Plan:

• Background Information- inconsistent emergency department work practices create a chaotic and exhausting work environment. And emergency department LOS metrics are too high.
• Problem Statement- Inconsistent practices contribute to inefficiencies for the ED discharged home patient with an average LOS of 160 minutes, which is way about the national benchmark of 90 minutes.
• Goal- To achieve the national benchmark level of ED LOS by June 2014.
• Cause Analysis- 1. Insufficient communication on patient readiness. 2. No standard workflow. 3. No standard patient assignment process for physicians. 4. Chart is placed far away from care site.

Do: Create and assigned specific tasks to individual staffs with specific time frame.

Check: measure results periodically. Verify if actual results match the planned results.

Act: Adjust if the existing plan does not work, reassess and make changes as needed. Standardized the process if it worked. Document standard process if solution solved the problem. Ensure ongoing PDCA to sustain results.

It take time for an organization to get through a complete transformation process, sometimes, it is not possible to be completely transformed due to the constantly changing environment, continuous improvement allows the organization to tackle one problem at at time.  

Client IQ Analytics (2012). Measurement and Quality Improvement. Retrieved February 23, 2014, from http://www.qualitick.com/applications.html

Reference  

Advocate Health Care (2012). Continous Improvement Methodology- PDCA. Retrieved from http://www.advocatehealth.com/documents/research/06%20Lipp%20Haussen_PDCA_Presentation.pdf