title: Quality improvement pitfalls and how to overcome them.
abstract: Analysis of the quarterly quality improvement reports submitted by departments and teams at the University of New Mexico Hospital identified several common pitfalls: monitoring someone else's performance, choosing irrelevant or meaningless indicators, working with inadequate samples, changing measurement techniques or indicators too frequently, taking ineffective actions, and jumping to solutions. To overcome these pitfalls, managers and team leaders can use tools such as indicator worksheets, data collection plans, report forms, team-tracking mechanisms, and comprehensive guidelines as their guides through the quality improvement process.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ohm
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000592:standards*; D007318:Inservice Training; D007324:Institutional Management Teams; D008332:Management Quality Circles; D009516:New Mexico; D010934:Planning Techniques; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*