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Role of Quality Improvement in Health Outcomes

Traditional research methodologies, such as randomized control trials have for long
been considered the gold standard for new evidence creation in healthcare because of their
relative effectiveness in establishing cause and effect (Leigh, 2011) . In recent times, however,
quality improvement has emerged as a cheaper and more effective method of helping
healthcare providers achieve important healthcare outcomes, such as reducing preventable
deaths, increasing patient safety, and shortening their length of stay (Bartman et al., 2018).
While randomized controlled trials seek to establish evidence about the efficacy of various
treatments and therapies, quality improvement creates evidence about changes that need to be
made in various systems and processes in order to improve healthcare outcomes.
Evidence suggests that investment in quality improvement results in better patient
outcomes than in randomized control trials and other traditional research methodologies. For
instance, during the 1950s, there was an average of 64 anesthesia-related deaths per 100,000 in
the USA each year (Niven et al., 2019). Quality improvement measures such as improved
training and introduction of safety standards were then implemented to address the problem.
The result was a reduction in anesthesia-related deaths to just 0.4 per 100,000 fifty years later
(Niven et al., 2019). Large-scale randomized control tests that were done during the same
period to address the problem only resulted in negative results. This example proves that
indeed quality improvement is better at bringing about improved patient outcomes than
traditional research methodologies, such as randomized control trials. Quality improvement
achieves better results because it focuses on eliminating factors that significantly worsen
health outcomes, such as medical errors and inefficiencies (Niven et al., 2019). Given that

ROLE OF QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN HEALTH OUTCOMES 3
quality improvement is generally cheaper than randomized control tests, perhaps it is time
healthcare providers increased investment in it for better health outcomes.

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References

Bartman, T., DeWalt, D. A., Johnson, D. P., Mehr, D. R., Payne, A. S., & Provost, L. P. (2018).
Improvement Science Takes Advantage of Methods beyond the Randomized Controlled
Trial. Pediatric quality & safety, 3(3).
Leigh, A. (2011). From Scurvy to Surgery: The History of Randomized Trials
Niven, A. S., Herasevich, S., Pickering, B. W., & Gajic, O. (2019). The Future of Critical Care
Lies in Quality Improvement and Education. Annals of the American Thoracic
Society, 16(6), 649-656.