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Independent high-quality evidence for health care decision making

Continuous quality improvement: effects on professional practice and healthcare outcomes

Brennan S, McKenzie J, Whitty P, Buchan H, Green S
Published Online: 
October 7, 2009
This Cochrane Review is at the protocol stage and there is no abstract or plain language summary. The objectives for the review are as follows:

The overall objective of this review is to determine if CQI is effective for improving professional practice and ultimately healthcare outcomes. We plan to do this by conducting a systematic review of existing evidence to address the following questions:

Primary aims

Is CQI effective for improving professional practice and healthcare outcomes compared to no intervention and is the magnitude of effect modified by the following factors?

  • Intensity of the CQI implementation strategy.
  • Organisation-wide CQI strategy or support for CQI.
  • Team performance and participation.
  • Complexity of the targeted change.
  • Type of healthcare setting.
  • Healthcare professional performance at baseline.
Secondary aims:

Is CQI effective for improving professional practice and healthcare outcomes compared to:

  • single interventions to change health professionals’ behaviour (classified according to the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group taxonomy); or
  • multifaceted interventions to change health professionals’ behaviour (classified according to the Cochrane EPOC Group taxonomy); or
  • tailored interventions to overcome identified barriers to change; or
  • other organisational change interventions with a team-based component (e.g. Business Process Reengineering)?
Find the research
Get full text at The Cochrane Library
Primary Review Group: 
Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group

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