How to Diagnose Solutions to a Quality of Care Problem

To change a particular quality of care outcome within a system, quality improvement initiatives must first understand the causes contributing to the outcome. After the causes of a particular outcome are known, changes can be made to address these causes and change the outcome. Using the example of home dialysis (home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis), this article within this Moving Points feature on quality improvement will provide health care professionals with the tools necessary to analyze the steps contributing to certain outcomes in health care quality and develop ideas that will ultimately lead to their resolution. The tools used to identify the main contributors to a quality of care outcome will be described, including cause and effect diagrams, Pareto analysis, and process mapping. We will also review common change concepts and brainstorming activities to identify effective change ideas. These methods will be applied to our home dialysis quality improvement project, providing a practical example that other kidney health care professionals can replicate at their local centers.