title: Understanding processes and how to improve them.
abstract: This is the second in a series of articles about the science of quality improvement. Many quality improvement initiatives are aimed at improving the process of care and ensuring that high-quality care is delivered reliably. In this article, we explain why it is important to understand healthcare processes in order to improve them and how this can be achieved. We explain the use of logic models to determine what information to collect (from surveys, interviews, direct observations and other sources) and how to analyse this information (using techniques such as process maps, critical-to-quality trees, driver diagrams and cause-and-effect diagrams) to design more reliable and higher quality healthcare processes.
authors: Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7TS, UK. nsiriwardena@lincoln.ac.uk
authors: A Niroshan
authors: AN
authors: Siriwardena
authors: Steve
authors: S
authors: Gillam
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D058996:Quality Improvement