Georgetown University
Process Improvement
 

 

Clearinghouse
 

Medline Searches

You can use one of the following links to get to a pre-set Medline list of articles and their abstracts.

An Annotated Bibliography

See also annotated bibliography on interdisciplinary education 

Prepared by Dr. Linda Headrick

Version of 9-7-99

Continuous Improvement Theory and Practice

  1. Argyris, C. Knowledge for Action: A Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Organizational Change.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc. Publishers, 1993. -- Argyris describes in detail his consultation with a firm seeking to overcome its own obstacles to learning.  The description highlights the difficulty of maintaining consistency in leaders’ ability to reconcile their espoused theory and theory in use in daily work.

  2. Brassard M.  The Memory Jogger Plus+.  Methuen, MA:  GOAL/QPC, 1989.  Step-by-step guide to management, planning, and team tools.

  3. Deming WE.  The New Economics.  Cambridge, MA:  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Advanced Engineering Study; 1993. --  From one of the founders of CQI, a book published just before his death.

  4. Garvin DA.  Building a Learning Organization.  Harvard Business Review.  July-August 1993, 78-91. --  A practical guide to the creation of an organization which is "skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights."

  5. Gustafson D, Cats-Baril, Alemi F.  Systems to Support Health Policy Analysis: Theory, Models and Uses.  Ann Arbor, MI: Health Administration Press, 1992, pp 43-51. -- A concise description of factors which can make change more likely to be successful.

  6. Hackman JR, ed.  Groups that Work (and Those That Don't):  Creating Conditions for Effective Teamwork.  San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1990. -- The results of an excellent study of teams in the work place, with specific practical lessons for successful teamwork.

  7. Kotter JP.  Leading Change:  Why Transformation Efforts Fail.  Harvard Business Review.   March/April 1995, pp 59-67.

  8. Langley GJ, Nolan KM, Nolan TM.  The Foundation of Improvement.  Quality Progress.  June 1994:81-86. --  A useful paper which provides a straightforward model to operationalize the concepts and methods of continual improvement.

  9. Langley GJ, Nolan KM, Nolan TW, Norman CL, Provost LP.  The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996.  -- A superb new guide to an overarching model of improvement that combines the best of  “CQI”, “TQM”, “reengineering”, etc.  Excellent reading for the beginner and the expert.

  10. Roberts HV & Sergesketter BF.  Quality is Personal.  (The Free Press, a Division of Macmillan, Inc., New York:  1993) -- An extraordinarily useful approach to improving everyday work (and life).  Roberts is on the faculty of the University of Chicago School of Business, where for years he has used CQI to improve education.  This book is a straightforward guide to using CQI to clear off your desk, keep your family happier, make your life easier. 

  11. Rogers EM.  Lessons for Guidelines from the diffusion of Innovations.  Jt Comm Jl Qual Improv.  1995;21:324-28. -- Review Rogers’ classic work on factors that influence the success of change efforts

  12. Scholtes PR, Joiner BL, Streibel BJ.  The Team Handbook.  Madison, WI:  Oriel Incorporated:  1996.  --  A practical guide to the use of teams in continual improvement.  Good sourcebook for commonly-used team tools.

  13. Senge, PM.  The Fifth Discipline:  The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization.  New York:  Doubleday, 1990.  The "textbook" on systems thinking for any group or organization that wishes to have the IQ of the group exceed the IQ of the individuals.

Continuous Improvement in Health Care

  1. Batalden, PB, Nelson, EC and Roberts, JS. The “Serial V” Way of Thinking About Clinical Care.  Jt Comm Jl  Qual Improv, Vol. 20, No. 4, April 1994 : 167-180 --  The authors relate continual improvement to outcome measurement for health care.  The “serial V” way of thinking alternates between outcome and process analysis, from global-to-specific levels of application.

  2. Batalden PB and Stoltz PA-C.  A Framework for the Continual Improvement of Health Care:  Building and Applying Professional and Improvement Knowledge to Test Changes in Daily Work.   Jt Comm Jl  Qual Improv, 1993;19:424-452. -- An important article describing how "knowledge for improvement" plus "discipline-specific knowledge" stimulates continual improvement.

  3. Berwick, DM.   Continuous Improvement as an Ideal in Health Care.   NEJM 1989;320:53-56. -- A classic article that argues for CQI as a more powerful way to improve health care than looking for "bad apples."

  4. Berwick DM.  Controlling Variation in Health Care:  A Consultation from Walter Shewhart.  Medical Care  1991;29:1212-1225. --  An explanation of how using science to control unintended variation will improve the quality and reliability of health care delivery, while protecting the professional autonomy, dignity and purpose of health care professionals.

  5. Berwick DM, editor.  Eye on Improvement.  A twice-monthly journal which publishes abstracts on continual improvement in health care from a wide range of formal and informal sources.  Reviewers are interdisciplinary and include representatives from medicine, nursing, and health administration. Published by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Boston.  For subscription information: 1-800-895-4951.

  6. Berwick DM.  A Primer on Leading the Improvement of Systems.  British Medical Journal.  1996;312:619-622. -- A guide to how to make change successfully, citing common pitfalls and how to avoid them.            

  7. Blumenthal D.  Part 1: Quality of Care--What Is It?   NEJM 1996;335:891-894.  -- History and definition of quality in health care, with focus on incorporating the perspectives of multiple stakeholders.

  8. Blumenthal, D.  Total Quality Management and Physicians' Clinical Decisions.  JAMA 1993;269:2775-2778. --  Describes industrial quality management science, with special attention to statistical quality control.  Illustrations include improving the accessibility of large amounts of clinical data, as in the intensive care unit and interpreting outcomes over time, as in the management of chronic disease.

  9. Chassin MR.  Part 3: Improving the Quality of Care.  NEJM 1996;335:1060-1063. -- Argument for clinicians to be actively involved in measuring and improving quality of care.

  10. Classen DC, Evans RS, Pestotnik SL, Horn SD, et al,  The Timing of Prophylactic Administration of Antibiotics and the Risk of Surgical-Wound Infection.  NEJM.  1992;326:281-6. -- Excellent example of how variations in process (time of administration of prophylactic antibiotics) can be linked to important variations in outcome (post-operative wound infection).

  11. Headrick L, Crain E, Evans D, Jackson MN, Layman BH, Bogin RM, Young M.  National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Working Group Report on the Quality of Asthma Care.  Am J Respir Crit Care Med  1996;154:S96-S118. -- Report sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommends a continuous improvement approach to quality in asthma care.

  12. Headrick LA, Neuhauser D.  Quality Health Care.  JAMA.  1995;273:1718-1720.  --  Brief review of progress to date in applications of CQI to clinical medicine.

  13. Kritchevsky SB, Simmons BP.  Continuous Quality Improvement:  Concepts and Applications for Physician Care.  JAMA.  1991;266:1817-1823. --  One of the first articles describing CQI in health care to be published in a "major" journal.

  14. Leading Clinical Quality Improvement.  Healthcare Forum Journal, July - August, 1994: 18-54 -- This issue contains five articles devoted to Leading Clinical Quality Improvement.   James L. Reinertsen, in “The Tyranny of Piecework” addresses the question,  “Does your system have enough central nervous system and backbone to be able to suboptimize one part so you can optimize the whole?”  Eugene C. Nelson and John H. Wasson contend  that each patient care episode is an opportunity to learn and improve present and future care in “Using Patient-Based Information to Rapidly Redesign Care.”  Lee H. Newcomer presents  “Six Pointers for Implementing Guidelines.”  H. Gary Pehrson shares lessons from Intermountain Health Care in his article, “Give it Time,” which emphasizes the need to make a long term commitment to attain lasting improvements.  A fifth article is the special insert on “Outcomes Measurement.”

  15. McGarvey RN, Harper JJ.  Pneumonia Mortality Reduction and Quality Improvement in a Community Hospital.  Qual Rev Bull.  1993;19:124-130.  --  Mortality rate for community-acquired pneumonia decreased from 10.2% to 6.8%; average length of stay decreased 1.3 days; total charges dropped 9%.

  16. McLaughlin CP, Kaluzny AD.  Continuous Quality Improvement in Health Care:  Theory, Implementation, and Applications, 2nd ed.  Gaithersburg, MD:  Aspen Publishers, 1999. --  For those who wish to dig deeper, this recent, well-written book is a good overview of the state-of-the art in continual improvement in health care.

  17. Nelson EC, Batalden PB, Ryer JC.  Clinical Improvement Action Guide.  Oakbrook Terrace, IL: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 1998. B A step-by-step guide to clinical improvement, ranging from measuring outcomes to testing new approaches to sustaining change.

  18.  Nelson EC, Mohr JJ, Batalden PB, Plume SK, A Improving Health Care, Part 1: The Clinical Value Compass,  Joint Commission J on Quality Improvement.  1996;22:243-258. -- Useful model for multidimensional measurement of outcomes, linked to improvement of care.

  19. Nelson EC, Batalden PB, Plume SK, Mohr JJ.  Improving Health Care, Part 2: A Clinical Improvement Worksheet and Users Manual.    Joint Commission J on Quality Improvement.  1996;22:531-544. -- Step-by-step guide to clinical improvement, with a worksheet that has been used successfully in several health care settings.

  20. Neuhauser D, McEachern JE, Headrick LA. Clinical CQI, A Book of Readings.  Oakbrook Terrace, IL: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 1995.  --  A collection of articles the authors have found useful for teaching about Continuous Improvement in Health Care.

  21. O’Connor GT, Plume SK, Olmstead EM, Morton JR et al.  A Regional Intervention to Improve the Hospital Mortality Associated with Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery.  JAMA  1996;275:841-846  -- Report of how continuous improvement led to 24% decrease in mortality after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

  22. The President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry.  Quality First:  Better Health Care For All Americans. Washington, D.C.:  U.S. Government Printing Office, 1998.  Available by writing the printing office, Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop:  SSOP, Washington, D.C.,  20402-9328.  ISBN 0-16-049533-4.  (Available at http://www.hcqualitycomission.gov)  – Recommendations to improve the U.S. health care system  “to continuously reduce the impact and burden of illness, injury, and disability and to improve the health and functioning of the people of the United States.”  

  23.  Walker E.  Annotated Bibliography of Quality of Care Research.  Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Center for General Health Services Extramural Research, Publication No. 92-0029, 1992.

Continuous  Improvement in Professional Education

  1. Baker R, Gelmon S, Headrick LA, Knapp M, Norman L, Quinn D, Neuhauser D.  Collaborating for Improvement in Health Professions Education.  Quality Management in Health Care 1998;6(2):1-11. B Lead article of a special issue of QMHC devoted to health professions education in continuous improvement, highlighting the work of the IHI Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative.

  2. Bellack, JP, Gerrity P, Moore SM, Novotny J, Quinn D, Norman L, Harper DC.  Taking Aim at Interdisciplinary Education for Continuous Improvement in Healthcare. Nursing and HealthCare: Perspectives  1997;18:308-15. -- The nursing perspective of lessons learned in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative.

  3. Coleman MT, Headrick LA, Langley AE, Thomas JX.  Teaching Medical Faculty How to Apply Continuous Quality Improvement to Medical Education.  Jt Comm J on Qual Improv.  1998;24:640-52. --  Results of faculty development in improvement for faculty leaders in medical education.

  4. Collaborating for Change in Health Professions Education.  Joint Commission Journal on Quality Improvement, 1996:22:145-236. -- This entire issue is devoted to change in professional education, teaching and achieving continuous improvement.  Highlights the work of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative, a four-site demonstration project teaching students in health administration, medicine, nursing and others about the continuous improvement of health care.

  5. Ellrodt AG.  Introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM) into an Internal Medicine Training Program Acad Med  1993;68:817-823. --  Describes the restructured Internal Medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where faculty and housestaff use the formal scientific methods of TQM/CQI to drive clinical and educational decisions.

  6. Gordon PR, Carlson L, Chessman AC, Kundrat ML, Morahan PS, Headrick LA.  A National Collaboration for the Development of Interdisciplinary Education in Continuous Improvement for Health Professions Students.  Acad Med.  1996;71:973-978.

  7. Headrick LA, Neuhauser D, Melnikow J, Vanek E. Teaching Medical Students about Quality and Cost of Care at Case Western Reserve University. Acad Med 1992;67:157-159. --  CQI as a framework for students to study quality and cost of care in the primary care setting.

  8. Headrick LA, Neuhauser D, Schwab P, Stevens DP.  Continuous Quality Improvement and the Education of the Generalist Physician.  Acad Med  1995;70(Supp):S104-S109. -- Reviews work to date in undergraduate and graduate medical education to give future physicians skills in continual improvement.  Argues that such preparation is needed in the new health care environment.

  9. Headrick LA, Richardson A, Priebe GP.  Continuous Improvement Learning for Residents.  Pediatrics.  1998;101:768-74. -- Review of efforts to date to teach improvement in graduate medical education, with specific examples from pediatrics.

  10. Parenti CM, Lederle FA, Impola CL, Peterson LR.  Reduction of Unnecessary Intravenous Catheter Use:  Internal Medicine House Staff Participate in a Successful Quality Improvement Project.  Arch Intern Med.  1994;154:1829-1832. --  Describes a project in  a large, teaching hospital which resulted in decreased use of unnecessary, unused intravenous catheters.  Argues for housestaff training in CQI.

Continuous Improvement in Higher Education

  1. Angelo TA and Cross KP.  Classroom Assessment Techniques:  A Handbook for College Teachers.  2nd edition (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1993) -- Includes practical techniques for assessing  course-related knowledge and skills for prior knowledge, recall and understanding, analysis and critical thinking, synthesis and creative writing, problem solving, applications and performance;  (ii) learner attitudes, values and self-awareness as learners in learning and study skills;  (iii) learner reactions to teachers and teaching, class activities, assignments and materials.

  2. Angelo TA.  A "Teacher's Dozen:"  14 General, Research-Based Principles for Improving Higher Learning in Our Classrooms.  AAHE Bulletin, April 1993 -- A brief summary of the 14 top classroom assessment techniques that are the most widely used.

  3. Barr, R.B. and Tagg, J.  From Teaching to Learning - - A New paradigm for Undergraduate Education.  Change, November/December, 1995 : 13-25. --  Barr and Tagg provide a relatively jargon-less view of a shift they assert is happening in colleges from an  “Instruction Paradigm” to a “Learning Paradigm” through which the aim of higher education becomes “to produce learning”.  They compare the two paradigms in terms of mission and purposes, criteria for success, teaching/learning structures, learning theory, productivity/funding, and the nature of roles for faculty, students and staff.

  4. Baugher K.  LEARN:  Student Quality Manual  Samford University Press, Birmingham AL, 1992  --  A practical manual about forming CQI teams in courses to address barriers to their learning which they identify.  Many of the barriers prove to be logistical problems that can be easily solved, and give immediate reward and feedback to the students that the faculty view their learning as important.

  5. Cross KP.  Involving Faculty in TQM.  AACC Journal, Feb/March 1993  --  Short paper that outlines how closely TQM and classroom assessment techniques are aligned.

  6. Chaffee EE and Sherr LA.  Quality:  Transforming Post-Secondary Education.  ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 3, 1992, ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education and The George Washington University School of Education and Human Development.

  7. Cornesky R, McCool S, Burnes L and Weber R.  Implementing Total Quality Management in Higher Education.  Magna Publications, Madison, WI, 1991.  --  Overview with case histories at colleges and universities.

  8. Englekemeyer, SW.  What Happened to CQI?  AAHE Bulletin March 1998; 11-16. B A brief review of improvement work at nine universities.  The author argues that in institutions of higher education, CQI evolves from a focus on administrative process improvement to long-term strategic initiatives to improve student learning and institutional effectiveness.

  9. Hau I.  Teaching Quality Improvement by Quality Improvement in Teaching.  Report No. 59, 1991, Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement, University of Wisconsin, 610 Walnut Street, Madison, WI  53705,  (608) 263-2520 -- A procedure similar to that of Baugher's, describing Hau's experience in improving learning in his statistics class.

  10. Langford, D.P. and Cleary, B.A. Orchestrating Learning with Quality.  Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Quality press, 1995  --  Langford and Cleary=s book relates continuous improvement to general education, but much of its content is meaningful for higher education as well.  It is a good primer for educators who are just beginning to think about quality improvement in education. 

  11. Seymour D and associates.  High Performing Colleges: The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award as a Framework for Improving Higher Education.  Maryville, MO: Prescott Publishing Company, 1996.  -- A two-volume review and analysis of continuous improvement in higher education, organized around the Baldrige framework.

  12. Seymour DT.  On Q:  Causing Quality in Higher Education.  (ACE-Macmillan, 1992).

 

 
  This page is part of the course on Quality / Process Improvement, the section on "Clearinghouse."  It was last edited on 09/29/2008 by Farrokh Alemi, Ph.D.  © Copyright protected.