Quality and Safety in Health Care, Part I: Five Pioneers in Quality

Five pioneers had a huge impact on the quality movement in health care in the United States. Ernest Codman contributed in many ways, including his focus on outcome analysis. Avidis Donabedian is known for his focus on the 3 domains of structure, process, and outcome in health care. Walter Shewhart is known especially for the control chart and early work on what W. Edwards Deming made into the PDSA cycle. Deming is also known for other contributions, including his 14 points of management, correcting system problems rather than blaming the workers, and his System of Profound Knowledge. Juran is known for the Pareto principle and his emphasis on customer satisfaction and addressing the human, not just statistical side, of quality improvement.