Quality Improvement and Change management

Developing and sustaining neonatal allied health services requires a continuous quality improvement approach. Quality improvement can be defined as “the combined and unceasing efforts of everyone – healthcare professionals, patients and their families, researchers, payers, planners and educators – to make the changes that will lead to better patient outcomes (health), better system performance (care) and better professional development (learning)” (IHI, ref needed). Quality Improvement (QI) approaches encourage teams to see their activity as part of a wider system.  By understanding how your system works and the processes that make up this system, you can explore ways to work more efficiently, and achieve better outcomes. Here you will find links to a range of different QI resources that you can review to support your implementation of quality improvement projects in your neonatal setting.