All | IHI - Institute for Healthcare Improvement

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Turn on the Lights podcast is IHI's thought-provoking series of candid conversations about how the US health care system is working and not working, hosted by Drs. Don Berwick and Kedar Mate.

Enhancing Quality Improvement Adoption in US Nursing Homes

This report summarizes the research findings from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 90-day innovation project to identify key activities to increase adoption of effective quality improvement practices in US nursing homes.

Effective Quality Planning

Quality planning is the essential first step of IHI's Whole System Quality approach to overall quality management. This article describes effective quality planning that engages multidisciplinary health care leaders in clearly defining the systemwide quality goals, sets priorities, responds to external evaluations of performance, ensures there are sufficient resources to meet the goals, and leverages existing data systems to identify aligned opportunities for improvement.

Fundamentals of Health Care Improvement: A Guide to Improving Your Patients' Care

This book is intended to help health professional learners diagnose, measure, analyze, change, and lead improvements in health care, with the aim to shape reliable, high-quality systems of care in partnership with patients.

Blending Participatory Action Synthesis and Meta-Ethnography: An Innovative Approach to Evaluating Complex Community Health Transformation

This article describes an innovative participatory approach to evaluation of a community transformation initiative, the 100 Million Healthier Lives SCALE (Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation) initiative, that involved up to 18 communities across the US.

Developing Capacity for Learning Community Systems: Experiences from the 100 Million Healthier Lives SCALE Initiative

This paper explores the capabilities that contribute to community transformation and the common pathways followed by communities in the 100 Million Healthier Lives SCALE (Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation) initiative in their transformation journeys towards a “Culture of Health.”

An Integrated Approach to Quality

This article describes how whole system quality, an integrated organization-wide approach to quality, can help health care leaders build more responsive and resilient health systems.

Better Maternal Outcomes Quality Improvement Workbooks

Developed as part of the Better Maternal Outcomes Rapid Improvement Network, the workbooks contain descriptions, examples, and templates for tools that teams can use to guide their quality improvement (QI) work focused on improving maternal health outcomes and equity.

Tackling Systemic Racism in Maternity Care

A Brazilian health collaborative uses improvement science and the concept of “liberatory consciousness” to address racism in maternity care.

Whole System Quality

This white paper describes a more holistic approach to quality management that integrates quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement activities across the organization, supported by leadership practices that foster a culture of learning.

Accelerating Global Improvements in Health Care Quality

Many lower-resourced countries, historically focused on expanding access to essential health services, now place a similar priority on higher quality. In this Viewpoint, the authors describe how universal health coverage, a key Sustainable Development Goal, is meaningful only if the access it ensures is to effective and safe health services.

Equity in Postsecondary Education Systems

Based on IHI’s background in health and health care, we recognize certain similarities between the education and health care sectors, both in terms of their strengths and assets and also some systemic challenges both sectors face. The framework presented in this document focuses on both "Whole Person" and "Whole Community" to guide work to achieve student well-being and community well-being, now and in the future.

100 Million Healthier Lives: Using Improvement Science to Accelerate Community Transformation

This collection of resources, developed as part of the 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative (100MLives), provides practical guidance on how to use improvement methods and tools in community-based settings to advance health, well-being, and equity.

The NAM and the Quality of Health Care: Inflecting a Field

Two decades after the publication of two seminal Institute of Medicine reports, focal progress in quality improvement is undeniable, but wholesale, systemic improvement has been hard to bring to scale.

There Can Be No Quality Without Equity

Quality improvement tools and methods are well suited to an effort to improve equity in health and care. The missing ingredients over the past decades have been strategic intent and a sharply focused equity lens. The IHI Framework for Improving Health Equity can serve as a foundation for change in health care.

Telemedicine: Center Quality and Safety

This article offers four elements on which health care leaders must focus to ensure safe, high-quality telemedicine for patients.

COVID-19: Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Skills to Deploy During the Surge

The authors suggest a five-step strategy and actions for patient safety and quality improvement staff to employ their skills to support patients, clinical staff, and health care organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Choices for the "New Normal"

The author reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic and six areas where we face decisions about long-term change in the health care system: the speed of learning, standards, working conditions, proximity, preparedness, and equity.

Enhancing Collaborative Learning for Quality Improvement: Evidence from the Improving Clinical Flow Project, a Breakthrough Series Collaborative with Project ECHO

A novel combination of IHI Breakthrough Series Collaborative tools with Project ECHO's telementoring model contributed to building quality improvement (QI) capacity and improving processes and patient experience across FQHCs participating in the Improving Clinical Flow project.

Understanding Variation in Reported COVID-19 Deaths with a Novel Shewhart Chart Application

A novel Shewhart chart helped health care leaders and frontline teams understand if day-to-day variation in COVID-19 deaths may be attributed to meaningful signals of change.

Implementing Daily Management Systems to Support Sustained Quality Improvement in Ambulatory Surgery Centers

IHI's high-performance management system (HPMS) was piloted in several ambulatory surgery centers to understand the applicability of quality control using related practices (e.g., standardized daily huddles, visual management boards), and to understand the approach's impact on sustaining improvement in patient care.

Quality Improvement Team Member Matrix Worksheet

Effective quality improvement (QI) teams are multidisciplinary and include different areas of expertise. Use this worksheet to help you form a QI team that represents a range of perspectives and expertise.

QI Team Member Work Styles Inventory Worksheet

Quality improvement (QI) team members can use this worksheet to identify their preferred work styles.

Quality Improvement Project Measures Worksheet

Use this worksheet to identify the process, outcome, and balancing measures for your quality improvement project.

Quality Improvement Project Change Concepts Worksheet

A change concept is a general notion or approach to change that has been found to be useful in developing specific ideas for improvement. Use this worksheet to choose and explore relevant change concepts for a quality improvement project.