Continuous quality improvement: an analysis of the new paradigm in healthcare

Evaluating the quality of medical care is a documented activity extending as far back as 1910, when William Flexner, MD, examined the nation's medical schools. Standards promulgated by the federal government and by voluntary accreditation agencies have been primarily responsible for driving the development and widespread use of monitoring activities over the past 20 years. A new wind is blowing, however. Momentum is increasing to incorporate the principles of industrial quality improvement into the healthcare arena. In this study, Michelle Harvey poses the following questions: Have hospitals made the transition from traditional quality assurance to continuous quality improvement? Is an individual hospital's transition affected by such variables as bed size, region, profit or nonprofit status, and system affiliation? This analysis suggests that opportunities to facilitate transition to the new paradigm abound.