Case Study #1: The Quality Improvement (QI) Team Kick-Off?
(Courtesy of Victoria Parker, Program Director Department of Health Policy and Management Boston University School of Public Health)
Jeff looked at his watch again, sighed, and glanced around the room It was already 5 minutes past the hour. His first quality improvement (QI) project at Suburban Hospital, and only 3 of the 15 people he had invited to the kick-off team meeting had appeared.
Disappointed, Jeff proceeded to talk through the slide presentation he had carefully prepared, which outlined the targeted problems and the structured quality improvement methods that would be used to tackle the concerns. The three people in attendance asked few questions and seemed eager for the meeting to end. After a short and awkward discussion, Jeff
watched them hurry out of the room.
Back in his cubicle in the Quality Improvement department, Jeff struggled to sort through the mixture of anger, embarrassment, and frustration he was feeling about his effort to launch this Ql team. As the quality dis tor had suggested, Jeff had invited stakeholders from all the clinical a administrative areas involved in these issues to join this team. Using hospital’s email system, he had created and sent an electronic meeting invitation, and at least 10 of the 15 stakeholders recruited had accepted the invitation. Jeff had not wanted to make the e-vite message too long; the invitation had stated that each recipient had been named to a “new Ql team. Yet, only three had bothered attended did not seem very interested or engaged in what Jeff had to say.
Prior to the meeting, Jeff had been anxious to implement all of the great ideas about self-managing teams and group facilitation that he had learned healthcare management courses at State University. Now, based on ‘s attendance, he found himself feeling desperate about how he would get the project off the ground, never mind make it self-managing. As quality analyst. Jeff realized that he had no formal authority over any of The people he had invited.
How could his director expect him to get them actively involved?
- Based on what you have learned, what advice would you give Jeff about how to manage the formation of a new team?
- What do you think Jeff should do next in his effort to get this team underway?
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