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.

Five Whys and Five Hows

This tool, excerpted from Ron Bialek, Grace L. Duffy and John W. Moran’s book, The Public Health Quality Improvement Handbook, describes the five whys and five hows, when and how to use the method and examples. The five whys and five hows constitute a questioning process designed to drill down into the details of a problem or a solution and peel away the layers of symptoms. Learn more about the tool.

Additional Resources
Tools:

• Definition of "five whys."
• Definition of "root cause."

Publications, Books and Articles:

• "The Human Side of Root Cause Analysis," an article from the Journal for Quality and Participation (this article will be open for readers until Nov. 30).
• "Root Cause Analysis for Beginners," an article from Quality Progress.
• "Digging for the Root Cause," an article from Six Sigma Forum Magazine (this article will be open for readers until Nov. 30).
• Root Cause Analysis: The Core of Problem Solving and Corrective Action, book from ASQ’s Quality Press.

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, consider having it published 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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