Successful companies use quality improvement methods to create safer and better products. Today, many health organizations are using similar methods to improve the quality of care they provide.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and its network of care centers have partnered for years to speed up the rate of improvement in CF care by:
- Working with experts in CF care and quality improvement
- Updating CF care guidelines
- Training care center staff in quality improvement
- Setting national goals based on the care guidelines, medical research and information from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Patient Registry
- Making key health data for each care center available to the public
Recently, the Foundation created a Quality Improvement Toolkit. Like the care center health data, this toolkit aims to help people with CF, their families and care centers become successful partners in improving the quality of CF care. These efforts also reflect the Foundation’s seven goals for improving CF care:
- Make people with CF and their families full members of the care team
- Help people with CF achieve normal growth and nutrition status
- Diagnose respiratory infections early and ensure that the right therapies are received
- Decrease the spread of germs between people with CF
- Prevent complications and/or diagnose and treat them early
- Provide care regardless of race, age, education or insurance coverage
- Support all transplantation and end-of-life care decisions
To learn more about quality improvement in CF care, watch the Web cast, "One Team's Story: Raising the Bar of CF Care" (orig. air date April 5, 2005), and "Quality CF Care is More Than the Numbers" (orig. air date November 28, 2006), plus you can read "It's All About Suzy: Quality Improvement in CF Care."
NEXT: Read more about CF Care Center Network and review Care Center Data.
