QPS Improvement

Purpose

Quality Improvement (or “QI”)  is defined as “the combined and unceasing efforts of everyone—healthcare professionals, patients and their families, researchers, payers, planners and educators—to make the changes that will lead to better patient outcomes (health), better system performance (care) and better professional development (learning)” (Bataldan, 2007)

The purpose of the QPS Improvement Team is to provide support, tools, and resources to build QI skills, knowledge and confidence - thereby enabling people to use QI methods to deliver better care and outcomes for people who work in and use our health services.

Our principle focus is to address the 13 ‘common causes of harm’ as outlined in the HSE Patient Safety Strategy 2019-2024. International evidence indicates these are high impact patient safety risks, which, if tackled effectively, can result in improving safety and quality across all health settings. 

What we do

• National Medication Safety Programme
• Deteriorating Patient Improvement Programme Partnership
• Pressure Ulcers to Zero Collaborative
• Falls Prevention Collaborative
• Mobile App to Support the Improvements in Pressure Ulcers and Falls Prevention

Resources

• A short video on Medication Safety and the Know Check Ask campaign (filmed in Aug 2022)
• Quality Improvement Toolkit (2019): The QI toolkit was developed as a resource to support people working on QI projects and initiatives in any health care setting. 
• Leadership Skills for Engaging Staff in QI (2020): This two-page document provides quick tips on ways to engage with staff and motivate for excellence.
• Leadership Skills for Engaging Staff in Improving Quality – A Practical Toolkit (2018): This document was developed in collaboration with the National Staff Engagement Forum. It was designed to offer ideas on how to engage staff on organisational priorities and on subjects that are important to them.
• A Board’s Role in Improving Quality and Safety – Guidance and Resources (2017): This guidance provides a central repository of international and national perspectives on the board's role in improving quality and safety by providing examples of leading practices, resources and recommended reading.
• Quality and Safety Walk-rounds (2016): Quality and Safety Walk-rounds are proven QI interventions that allow healthcare organisations to move towards reflective rather than inspection focused programmes.
• Quality and Safety Committees - Guidance and Resources (2016): Quality and Safety Committees perform an essential role in our health services by providing a forum to consider and monitor and improve the quality and safety of care provided. This document is written in a general way to be applicable in the many HSE services for all levels of quality and safety committees.

Events

• 1 July 2022 DUE DATE for applications to the RCPI Postgraduate Certificate in Quality Improvement Leadership in Healthcare
• 14 June 2022: DPIP / NQPSD Conference “A systems approach to the clinically decorating patient” at the RCSI

Connect with us

You can contact us by clicking through to emails below:

• Maria Lordan Dunphy, Assistant National Director and Programme Lead, QPS Improvement and Patient Safety
• Róisín Egenton, Programme Manager (Strategy), QPS Improvement and Patient Safety
• Dervla Hogan, Programme Manager (Operations), QPS Improvement and Patient Safety
• Kelly Gibney, QPS Improvement and Patient Safety Office Manager
• Mary Lawless, QPS Improvement and Patient Safety Administrator
• Ciara Kirke, Clinical Lead, Medication Safety Programme
• Muriel Pate, Medication Safety Specialist Pharmacist, Medication Safety Programme