PDSA Quality Improvement Method:

When using the PDSA cycle, it’s important to include internal and external customers; they can provide feedback about what works and what doesn’t. The customer defines quality, so it would make sense to also involve them in the process when appropriate or feasible, to increase acceptance of the end result. (If you’re unsure about, who your customers are, you may want to create a customer chain to assist in identification.)

In applying PDSA, ask yourself three questions:

• What are we trying to accomplish?
• How will we know that a change is an improvement?
• What changes can we make that will result in an improvement

ROOT Cause Analysis:

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a tool to help health care organizations retrospectively study events where patient harm or undesired outcomes occurred in order to identify and address the root causes. By understanding the root cause of an event, we can improve patient safety by preventing future harm. A good root cause analysis allows for the design and implementation of a solution that addresses the failure at its source.

The following resources will help you:

• Describing the purpose of an RCA.
• Explaining how to run an effective RCA.
• Describing the RCA Program.



Resources:

• RCA Job Aid
• RCA2: The National Patient Safety Foundation
• UNC Medical Center RCA Program Guide

QI Tools and Techniques:

A3:

A3 is a structured problem solving and continuous improvement approach, first employed at Toyota and typically used by lean manufacturing practitioners.[1] It provides a simple and strict approach systematically leading towards problem solving over structured approaches. A3 leads towards problem solving over the structure, placed on an ISO – ISO A3single sheet paper. This is where the process got its name. A3 is also known as SPS, which stands for “Systematic Problem Solving”. The process is based on the principles of Edward Deming’s PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act).

The following resources will help you:

• Utilize an A3 format for problem solving.
• Participate in A3 projects.
• Download A3 Template
• Download A3 Template
• Steps for the A3 Process