Healthcare leaders’ views on successful quality improvement initiatives and context

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contextual factors contributing to the sustainability of healthcare quality improvement (QI) initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach

Themes from semi-structured interviews with international healthcare leaders are compared with Kaplan and Provost et al.’s (2012) model for understanding success in quality (MUSIQ). Critical success factors within these themes are shown in detail.

Findings

The interviews provide a rich source of information on critical success factors. The themes largely correspond with MUSIQ, reinforcing its robustness. An important factor emerging from the interviews was the importance of engagement with patients and families in QI, and this needs consideration in seeking to understand context in QI.

Research limitations/implications

Interview participants represent a limited set of western countries and health systems. Their experiences may not hold true in other settings.

Practical implications

The detail on critical success factors provides QI practitioners with guidance on designing and implementing sustainable initiatives.

Originality/value

Including consideration of contextual factors for engagement with patients and families in frameworks for context in QI appears to be an original idea that will add value to such frameworks. Researchers in patient engagement are starting to address contextual factors and connections should be made with this work.

Citation

Barson, S., Doolan-Noble, F., Gray, J. and Gauld, R. (2017), "Healthcare leaders’ views on successful quality improvement initiatives and context", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 54-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-10-2016-0191