Introduction Over the past 2 decades, evidence-based medicine has become a dominant paradigm for understanding best practices in medicine. Simply put, evidence-based medicine is the explicit incorporation of the best research evidence into the care decision-making process. More formally, evidence-based…
Introduction Quality assurance, quality improvement, and total quality Management initiatives and programs have been used, to different degrees, in business, management, and healthcare settings for decades now. However, despite the obvious positive impact on all healthcare outcomes, diffusion and integration…
Introduction The Institute of Medicine’s reports, Crossing the Quality Chasm and To Err Is Human , created an awareness within the American healthcare system that change and redesign are necessary to improve patient safety and quality of care. This is…
In recent years there have been several initiatives dedicated to improving radiologic standards of practice. Many of these programs, such as “Image Gently,” “Image Wisely,” “Step Lightly,” and the Dose Index Registry, address growing concerns over patient exposure to high…
Introduction In 2012, the American Board of Radiology (ABR) implemented a new Maintenance of Certification (MOC) process, known as Continuous Certification, for all participating diplomates. Every year on March 15, the ABR looks back at the previous 3 years for…
Safety in radiology is expected by our patients, colleagues, administrators, providers, national organizations, oversight organizations, and the government. It is no longer enough to provide accurate reports of findings on imaging studies. Radiologists and their coworkers in the radiology department…
Introduction The challenge of a changing economy and increasing pressure in healthcare for optimal performance while dealing with limited resources and maintaining the high quality levels of medicine is becoming increasingly difficult. There is increasing demand for quality improvement to…
Current and Traditional Definitions of Quality in Healthcare How do we best define quality in healthcare? The quality literature includes several definitions. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines quality of care as the degree to which health services for individuals…
Concepts for Quality Improvement Quality improvement (QI) methods are not new; they are just relatively new to the healthcare industry and the field of radiology. As a result, there is currently a gap between the high desire and need to…
To Err is Human When the Institute of Medicine (IOM, now the Academy of Medicine) first released its report, To Err Is Human , in 1999, headlines were made throughout the world. The notion that our healthcare delivery system was…