QUALITY IMPROVEMENT (QI)
WHAT IS QI?
We want to embed a culture of continuous quality improvement across the organisation, to help us meet our vision of delivering high quality care for every patient, every day. This means empowering all colleagues to make improvements, using an approach that is consistent across the organisation.
Quality Improvement (QI) is the use of a systematic method and tools, which requires the expertise and involvement of both staff and patients to identify, understand and address complex problems. It involves a combination of problem solving, identifying and testing ideas, as well as measuring whether changes made have led to an improvement. Through a process of continual learning, QI enables us to learn from failures, adapt quickly and share successes.
QI is about continuous improvement, so whatever changes are made are not forgotten about, but become new and improved ways of working. This could mean that patients are safer, staff are happier, or that there is less waste, for example. The QI journey starts with those staff and patients who are closest to the problem, so change is led from the ‘bottom-up’. This gives staff the opportunity to address the issues that are important to them, and make meaningful and sustainable improvements.
As an organisation we are committed to equipping staff with the skills and techniques to undertake QI projects and supporting the sharing of continuous learning and improvements. You can learn about our QI journey and approach in this short animation.
OUR APPROACH TO QI
To support our improvement journey, we need to adopt a consistent approach to QI. At LGT we follow the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) Model for Improvement, as illustrated below:
OUR PROGRESS
We are continually reviewing our progress and outcomes since the official launch of the Quality Improvement Team in November 2019. Our Quality Improvement Strategy outlines our ambition to build a culture of continuous Quality Improvement by 2025 and we measure how we perform against the following strategic priorities:
-
Building improvement capability and knowledge
-
Embedding an effective Quality Management System - identifying priority areas for improvement
-
Promoting Staff engagement (Joy in work)
-
Patients at the heart of QI (Patient & Carer Involvement)
-
Celebrate Success & shared learning
-
Governance and Leadership
You can read our most recent annual report or view our five year strategy to see how much progress we’ve made since the start of the programme.