Global lessons in building a continuous improvement culture in healthcare

Successful healthcare organizations are instituting continuous improvement programs so that patients receive the safety, high quality care, improved outcomes and positive experiences they expect.  Building such a culture is not a quick fix, but a long-term commitment requiring gradual cultural change throughout an organization. This paper from KPMG Global (click here) – Building a Culture of Excellence in Healthcare -- summarizes key findings and case studies from in-depth interviews with 20 senior health system leaders from across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.  Select recommendations include:

• Create a new end-to-end management system so changes become second nature.
• Demonstrate early impacts and publicize successes to drive motivation.
• Imbed change at all levels of the organization, from frontline teams to middle managers to executive leaders.
• Engage and empower patients to determine areas for quality improvement, test potential ideas and evaluate results.
• Remember that most continuous improvement projects span two to five years.

Organizations that adopt a mindset that is self-analytical and self-critical will find that frontline staff are empowered to identify and solve systems- and process-level problems that impact the quality of patient care.