title: Five types of practice-based improvement ideas in health care services: an empirically defined typology.
abstract: The aim of this study is to empirically identify and present different kinds of practice-based improvement ideas developed in health care services. The focus is on individual placement needs, problems/issues, and the ability to organize work on the development, implementation, and institutionalization of ideas for the health care sector. This study is based on a Swedish county council improvement program. Health care departments and primary health care centers in the Kalmar County Council were invited to apply for money to accomplish improvement projects. A qualitative content analysis was done of 183 proposed applications from various health care departments and primary health care centers. The following 5 types of improvement projects were identified: organizational process, evidence and quality, competence development, process technology, and proactive patient work. This illustrates the range of strategies that encourage letting individual units define their own improvement needs. These projects point to the various problems and experiences health care professionals encounter in their day-to-day work. To generalize beyond this improvement program and to validate the typology, we applied it to all articles found when searching for quality improvement projects in the journal Quality Management in Health Care during the last 2 years and found that all of them could be fitted into at least 1 of those 5 categories. This article provides valuable insights into the current state of improvement work in Swedish health care, and will serve as a foundation for further investigations in this quality improvement program.
authors.affiliation: Division of Quality Technology and Management, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. ann-christine.andersson@ltkalmar.se
authors.forename: Ann-Christine
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: Mattias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elg
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Idvall
authors.forename: Kent-Inge
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Perseius
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D015438:Health Behavior; D006298:Health Services Administration; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000458:organization & administration*