HA3344: Quality Management Vocabulary

Dr.Pradhan

Quality

Perceived degree of excellence

Value

Something that serves a useful purpose and is worth the cost

Healthcare quality

The degree to which health services fro individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge

Purchasers

Individuals and organizations that pay for healthcare services directly or indirectly

cost-effectiveness

The minimal expenditure of dollars, time, and other elements necessary to achieve a desired healthcare result

Providers

Individuals and organizations licensed or trained to provide healthcare

Defensive medicine

Diagnostic or therapeutic interventions conducted primarily as a safeguard against malpractice liability

Institute of Medicine

A private, nonprofit organization created by the federal government to provide science-based advice on matters of medicine and health

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

An independent, nonprofit organization helping to lead the improvement of healthcare throughout the world

Quality Management

A way of doing business that continuously improves products and services to achieve better performance

Overuse

Provision of health service that is more likely to harm than benefit the patient

Underuse

Not providing a health service that might have been medically beneficial

Misuse

Incorrect diagnoses, medical errors, and other sources of avoidable complications

Measurement

Collection of information for the purpose of understanding current performance and seeing how performance changes or improves over time

Assessment

Use of performance information to determine whether an acceptable level of quality has been reached

Improvement

Plnning and making changes to current practices to achieve better practices

Data

Numbers or facts that are interpreted for the purpose of drawing conclusions

Performance Expectations

Minimum acceptable levels of quality

Quality Planning

Setting quality objectives and specifying operational processes and related resources needed to fulfill the objectives

Quality control

Operational techniques and activities used to fulfill quality requirements (may be used interchangeably with quality assurance)

Quality Circles

Small groups of employees organized to solve work-related problems

Criteria

Standards or principles by which something is judged or evaluated

Baldridge National Quality Award

Recognition conferred annually by the Baldridge National Quality Program to U.S. organizations demonstrating performance excellence, including healthcare orgs

Accreditation Standards

Levels of performance excellence that organizations must attain to become credentialed by a competent authority

Quality Assurance

Evaluation activities aimed at ensuring compliance with minimum quality standards

Accreditation

A self-assessment and external assessment process used by healthcare organizations to assess their level of performance in relation to established standards and implement ways to continuously improve

Conditions of Participation

Rules that determine an entity's eligibility for involvement in a particular activity

HMO

Public or private organization providing comprehensive medical care to subscribers on the basis of a prepaid contract

Stakeholders

People, groups, organizations, or entities that can be directly or indirectly affected by an organization's actions, objectives, and policies.

External: consumers, accreditation groups

Internal: Physicians, employees

Measures

Instruments or tools used for measuring

Metrics

Any type of measurement used to gauge a quantifiable component of performance

Performance

The way in which an individual, a group, or an organization carries out or accomplishes important functions and processes

Customer Service

A series of activities designed to attend to customers' needs

Performance Measures

Quantitative tools used to evaluated an element of patient care

Quality indicators

Measures used to determine an organization's performance over time; also called performance measures

Percentage

A numerical expression indicating parts of a whole

Average

The numerical result obtained by dividing the sum of two or more quantities by the number of quantities

Ratio

One value divided by another; the value of one quantity in terms of the other

Validity

The degree to which data or results of a study are correct or true

Valid

Relevant, meaningful, and current; appropriate to the task at hand

Line Graph

A graph in which trends are highlighted by lines connecting data points

Structure Measures

Data describing the organizational facilities, environment, equipment, policies, and procedures

Process Measures

Data describing the delivery of healthcare services

Outcome measures

Data describing the results of healthcare services

System-level measure

Data describing the overall performance of several interdependent processes or activities

Activity-level measure

Data describing the performance of one process or activity

Core measure project

Performance measurement project sponsored by the Joint Commission

Numerator

The number written above the line in a common fraction to indicate the number of parts in a whole

Demoninator

The number written below the line in a common fraction that indicates the number of parts into which one whole is divided

Reliable

Yielding the same or comparable results in difference situations

Sample

A representative portion of a larger group

Interrater Reliability

Probability that a measurement is free from random error and yields consistent results regardless of the individuals gathering the data

Ex. A measure with high interrater reliability means that two or more people working independently will gather the same data

Check-sheet

A form on which data can be sorted into categories for easier analysis

Clinical practice guidlines

Systematically developed statements that assist practitioners' and patients' decisions about healthcare provided for specific clinical circumstance

Evidence-based measures

Data describing the extent to which current best evidence is used in making decisions about patient care

AHRQ

The health services research arm of the US Department of health and Human Services; the lead federal agency for research on healthcare quality, costs, outcomes, and patient safety

Balanced Scorecards

Frameworks for displaying system-level performance measures; components of structures performance management systems that align an organization's vision and mission with operational objectives

Pillars of Excellence

Strategic themes selected by an organization to focus efforts on aspects crucial to its success

Judgement

formation of an opinion after consideration or deliberation

Performance Expectation

Desired performance

Tabular reports

Performance data organized in a multicolumn, multirow format

Data visualization

Communication of information clearly and effectively through graphical means

Pie Charts

Graphs in which each unit of data is represented as a pie-shaped peice of a circle

Scatter Diagrams

Graphs used to show the correlation between two characteristics or variables

Horizontal Axis

The x-axis

Vertical Axis

The y-axis

Bar Graphs

Graphs used to show the relative size of different categories of a variable, on which each category or variable is represented by a bar, usually with a gap between the bars; also called bar charts

Histograms

Graphs used to show the center, dispersion, and shape of the distribution of a collection of performance data

Frequency Distributions

Classifications of performance data that allow comparison of the results in each category

Central Tendency

A measure of the middle or expected value of a data set

Pareta Charts

Graphs used to show where improvement resources should be applied by revealing the significant few problems from the trivial many

Pareto Principle

an 80/20 rules of thumb

Radar Charts

Graphs used to display the differences between actual and expected performance for several measures

Spider Charts

Graphs used to display the differences between actual and expected performance for several measures; Also called radar charts

Performance Trends

Patterns of gradual change in performance; the average or general tendency of performance data to move in a certain way over time

Dashboard

A set of performance measures displayed in a concise manner that allows for easy interpretation

Run Charts

Chronological sequences of data that include a horizontal center line

Standards

Performance expectations established by individuals or groups

Performance targets

Desired performance

Performance Comparison

Examination of similarities or differences between expected and actual performance

Appropriate

Suitable for a particular person, place, or condition

Benchmarking

Learning about the practices in other companies for the purpose of using them in your own organization

Performance Goals

Operational definitions of the desired state of performance

Statistical Process control

Application of statistical methods to identify and control performance

Process Variation

Fluctuation in process output

State of Statistical Control

Condition where performance measurement results vary randomly within control limits

Normal Distribution

A spread of information (such as performance data) in which the most frequently occurring value is in the middle of the range and other probabilities tail off symmetrically in both directions

Standard Deviation

A measure of the dispersion of a collection of values

Common cause variation

Variation in performance that does not result from a specific cause but is inherent in the process being measure

Special Cause variation

Unexpected variation in performance that results from a non-random event

Tampering

Doing something in reaction to a particular performance result without knowing whether it is caused by neutral variation or something unusual

Control Limits

Lines that define the area (set at one, two, or three standard deviations) on either side of the centerline, or mean, of data plotted on a control chart (reflect expected variation in the data)

Control Chart

A line graph that includes statistically calculated upper and lower control limits

Upper control Limit

Three standard deviations upward from the mean performance

Lower control Limit

The standard deviations downward from the mean performance

Performance Gap

The difference between actual and expected performance

Opportunity for Improvement

A problem or performance failure

Improvement Team

A group of individuals who work together to accomplish an improvement objective

Improvement objective

An initiative set up to achieve a performance improvement objective within a certain time frame

Analytic tools

Qualitative (language) and quantitative (numeric) tools used during an improvement project