Performance Improvement Project Basics

​​​​​​Performance improvement projects (PIPs) are a quintessential element of a healthcare organization's quality assurance and performance improvement (QAPI) program. They offer a blueprint for testing new strategies to address underlying causes of persistent issues within a care delivery system with the intent of improving patient safety outcomes and quality of life. They also allow organizations to pilot improvement efforts for effectiveness and sustainability before widespread adoption or implementation while leaving room for adjustments and refinements along the way.

Even though most PIPs follow a similar basic structure regardless of focus area, many organizations struggle to see their QAPI efforts come full circle to sustained improvement and data-driven results due to viewing PIPs as a series of individual initiatives. Instead, performance monitoring and improvement should be a continuous, robust, organization-wide effort...