Writing a Quality Improvement Report in Ten Steps

Elliott Taylor reports:

"The purpose [of quality improvement reports] is both to document and demonstrate improvements and to share best practices among health-care institutions...Select the title. It should describe the substantial improvement so readers can immediately recognize its relevance to their experience...Create a problem statement. Make sure the objective of the quality improvement project is clearly understood and can be stated clearly and succinctly in writing. Provide relevant background information as necessary...Validate project results. Make sure all the claims of the project are substantiated and that the arithmetic and formulas are error-free...Detail the analysis methodology and findings. Provide the actual data used, either in table form directly in your text or as appendices if space does not permit. Readers should be able to follow and validate your methodology...Summarize the improvement action plan. Include specific timelines and other metrics...Quantify the results. In most cases, charts, graphs and other visuals are appropriate to convey the significance of the changes made...Describe the control plan. Demonstrate to the reader what steps have been implemented to ensure that the quality improvement is sustained...Interpret the quality improvement. Summarize the implications of the quality improvement for other functional areas or disciplines. Discuss limitations of the improvement and future opportunities for improvement that the analysis identified...Add references. Reference any external publications or other sources that affected your solution throughout the document in footnotes and provide the footnotes at the end of the report...Write the abstract. Now that the entire report is complete, go back and create an abstract that summarizes the article and entices the reader to absorb the entire article...Avoid extensive use of acronyms for clarity. Not all acronyms translate across different organizations, even within the same industry."