Healthcare Update: Quality Tools and Applications

Welcome to Healthcare Update: Quality Tools and Applications. Each monthly edition features a specific tool and includes a template, how-to method or case study, with tips for use or accounts of how the tool could be used. This edition allows members of the ASQ community to share ideas and best practices for making the most of quality tools.

Control Plan

A control plan is a written summary that describes what is needed to ensure that performance improvements are sustained over time. It typically covers HR and training requirements, actions that should be taken if measures are outside the specified range and reactions needed to ensure process owners sustain the gains of process improvements. See an example of a control plan created at SMDC Health System’s Duluth Clinic-Ashland Laboratory as part of a successful project to improve the handling of add-on laboratory test orders. Learn more. (This case study presentation comes from the ASQ Healthcare Division.)

Additional Resources

• Control Plan: Description, benefits and example, ASQ Service Quality Division.
• “Contacts that Count,” article, Quality Progress.
• Process Control Plan Worksheet, Excel Spreadsheet, ASQ Six Sigma Forum.
• “Now What?” article, Quality Progress.
• “A Dose of DMAIC,” article, Quality Progress.

Have a Tool or Application to Submit?

Is there a specific tool, template or how-to method you’ve used to obtain better results or make processes more efficient? If so, submit it for consideration in Healthcare Update: Quality Tools and Applications.

Suggestions for submissions:

• Try using one of the downloadable tools or templates provided here. Write about how you used the template within a specific project for improved results. Or, offer an idea for improving or expanding the template. Look at the tools that have already been highlighted.
• Have you created your own quality tool template, one you can’t live without? Write a short description and instructions, and send it to us to consider for publication.
• Have you seen a particularly creative use of a quality tool in an unexpected setting? Tell us about it.
• What are your top three tips for using a particular quality tool successfully?

Submissions should be about 500 words. Please note: This newsletter is not intended to promote or sell products or services. To be considered for a future issue of Healthcare Update: Quality Tools and Applications, e-mail your tool or application to editor Nicole Adrian.

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