Quality improvement versus quality assurance?

Abstract

These suggestions for applications of QI philosophies and considerations for structural integration of QA and QI are not intended to convey that organizationwide adoption of QI merely involves use of QI tools and techniques, or that instilling QI philosophy in an organization is easily accomplished. Achieving continuous quality improvement on an organizationwide basis requires long-term, senior-level commitment, extensive training, adoption of the philosophies at all management levels, and behavioral and cultural change within the organization. The adoption of QI methods and philosophies in health care organizations does not preclude the use of or eliminate the need for QA approaches. Quality improvement and quality assurance are complementary endeavors for attaining continual improvement in health care quality. Improvement of the quality of care provided is and always has been the fundamental goal of health care quality assurance. Attainment of that goal can be advanced through building on the strengths of traditional quality assurance efforts and adopting philosophies and methods of quality improvement as the core forces of total quality management programs.