The nation’s preparedness to respond to a large-scale public health emergency, such as an influenza pandemic, is inadequate, but it could be improved by using the same quality improvement (QI) techniques commonly used in the healthcare delivery sector, researchers report in an article published July 15 on the Health Affairs web site.
Originally developed in manufacturing, QI represents “a systematic approach to understanding and measuring performance, identifying solutions to performance shortfalls, and implementing changes to improve outcomes.” The article describes the successful use of a pilot QI learning collaborative, involving five state and local health departments, designed to improve readiness for an influenza pandemic.
The researchers cite a number of improvements achieved by participating agencies during the nine months the learning collaborative was in existence. For example, the Genesee County Health Department in Michigan increased the percentage of its staff responding to an e-mail alert within 90 minutes from 50 percent to 83 percent. Read the abstract.
