title: Closing the gap between what we know and what we do.
abstract: Too often, clinical investigators have identified techniques to improve patient care for certain conditions, but those techniques slowly find their way into practice. At the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, new methods that accelerate the implementation of improved clinical practices are being taught to participants in Breakthrough Series collaboratives. These methods have to do with testing change in small increments, based on "just enough" measurement; analyzing the results to ensure the change is an improvement; and moving on to the next small-scale change test. Several experts and participants talk about breakthroughs they've seen as a result of several incremental improvements. Using breakthrough methods, they've dealt with several clinical problems, resulting in improvements such as reduced emergency room delays and improved scheduling of i.v. therapy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D002985:Clinical Protocols; D017046:Cost Savings; D003625:Data Collection; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D015274:Interdepartmental Relations; D008332:Management Quality Circles; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States