Beginner's guide to practice quality improvement using the model for improvement

Radiologists in the United States are required to complete the Practice Quality Improvement (PQI) program as part of their Maintenance of Certification by the ABR. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) Model for Improvement (MFI) offers an alternative to the 3-phase approach currently advocated by the ABR. The MFI implicitly assumes that many interventions will need to be tested and refined for any meaningful project, and provides a project management approach that enables rapid assessment and improvement of performance. By collecting data continuously, rather than simply before and after interventions, more interventions can be tested simultaneously and projects can progress more rapidly. In this article, we describe the ABR's 3-phase approach, and introduce the MFI and how it can be employed to affect positive changes. Using a radiology case study, we demonstrate how one can utilize the MFI to enable rapid quality improvement.