Define Cqi And How It Can Lead To Enhanced

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Case brief 2 10/19/2011 2. Define CQI. Why is it an organizational philosophy? What are its attributes? How can CQI lead to an enhanced HSO/HS competitive position? The healthcare industry has changed over the years in terms of placing more focus on quality. In the past, more focus was put on reducing input cost instead of enhancing the quality of output. It was shortly found out that this was just a solution for short term fixes and did not have a positive long term outcome. One theory that has gained wide acceptance in the industry is continuous quality improvement (CQI). This theory is said to come from earlier work of W. Edwards Deming and his mentor Walter A. Shewhart. Improving quality will enable a health service organization (HSO) to become more productive and cost-effective. Another benefit from this philosophy is that the HSO can gain a competitive advantage in the industry by improving quality. (Longest and Darr, 2008) CQI is an approach to quality management that focuses on the process more than the individual. It is an organizational framework in which the HSO and its employees, including everyone from the governing board down to the clinical staff, are committed to evaluating and monitoring every aspect of the organizations activities so that they can be continuously improved. CQI is process focused, which means that more attention is spent on understanding and analyzing the processes in the organization. The processes and changes to the processes must be looked at to know what effects come from them. This will result in having enhanced productivity through effective and efficient use of resources. CQI uses output measures to measure overall performance of the processes and the organization as a whole. The goal of CQI is to meet or exceed the expectations of the customers, both internal and external customers. (Longest and Darr,
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