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Reorganizing the structure and delivery of services has been a typical focus of initiatives to improve the standard, safety, and effectiveness of health care delivery. Continuous quality improvement (CQI), a technique commonly used in the manufacturing and industrial sectors, has been applied to the health sector. Given the complexity and diversity of health systems, questions about CQI's efficacy persist despite its increased focus. This review evaluates CQI's efficacy in various healthcare environments and looks into the significance of the approach's many elements. Twenty- eight RCTs assessed the effectiveness of different approaches to CQI in a variety of scenarios using a non- CQI comparison. The methodologies used, the duration of the meetings, the participants, and the type of training provided varied throughout the interventions. It was believed that bias might taint any RCT and affect the results. The benefits of CQI compared to a non-CQI comparison on clinical process, patient, and other outcomes were not great, as evidenced by the fact that less than half of RCTs showed any effect. Benefits were usually demonstrated in clinical process metrics; these were impacted by the frequency (weekly), the type of meeting (leaders discussing implementation), and the methodology (Plan-Do-Study-Act, improvement methodology). Studying health disparities caused by socioeconomic status.
Khare et al. (2024) studied this question.