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Quality improvement (QI) projects have 2 fundamental aims: (1) to eliminate unnecessary and undesirable variation in medical service delivery and (2) to increase the adherence of medical practice to widely accepted standards of care. Quality improvement projects are generally undertaken with the guidance of a study group composed of representatives from stakeholders involved in the process and are based on major consensus guidelines. True QI projects target processes of cares and not outcomes, although processes of care strongly linked with favorable outcomes are preferred. A process of care can be defined as a medical decision or a clinical intervention that is performed for a patient or group of patients in the course of managing or preventing a disease. This decision or intervention is usually made at the site of care. Thus, decreasing length of stay, which was one of the examples by Lo and Groman,¹ alters an outcome, not a . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Charles Stimler, MD, MPH
Douglaston, NY

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