The Quality Improvement Skills Programme (QUISP) is a short, practical course to help small groups learn how to apply quality improvement to their organisations.

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Who is involved

Over 170 teams have participated so far including general practices, hospitals, dental surgeries, pharmacies and PCTs.  

What we are doing

QuISP enables participants to:

• Build effective teams
• Apply skills focused on specific priorities
• Utilise a range of quality improvement skills and tools to use, sustain and embed improvement
• Learn how to engage colleagues to work together to improve services
• Learn how to engage and work with patients to improve services
• Be more empowered to respond to and implement change more effectively.

Participants learn practical applications of:

• The improvement model
• Analysing information and data
• Measuring improvement
• Process mapping
• Root cause analysis
• The psychology of change
• The spread and sustainability of change.

The programme has been run more than 170 times so far and has involved over 1,000 participants within a range of public sector organisations, including the NHS, local government and the prison service.

The university-accredited programme can be booked at any time of the year, if you have six to eight teams of two to four people within one local area.

Teams can come from one organisation, or a number of different ones, and the programme is delivered at a site that is convenient to the teams.

Before starting the programme, a facilitator works with each team to establish which organisational priorities will be their focus.

Each programme then involves three one-day workshops delivered by an accredited trainer over a three month period. In between the workshops, teams apply the learning to their workplace priorities, supported by facilitators, and progress is measured.

Participants complete a programme review of their experience to achieve their University of Teesside certificate.

Key results

Substantial improvements have been achieved in many different areas including disease management, access to services, waiting times and the operational management of services.

Over 85% of participants say that QuISP has helped them develop a 'can do' approach to change and now regularly use the skills learnt to help them bring about change.

Some of the results that teams have achieved include:

Secondary care

A hospital renal team reduced waiting times for patients by up to 12 weeks and reduced Did-Not-Attends so there were only two in two months.

Pharmacy

A pharmacy team improved communication to the primary medical care team about medication changes that happened for older people in hospital. This resulted in a 70% increase in accurate, timely communication about medication changes.

GP practice

One practice focused on improving coronary heart disease (CHD) monitoring through introducing monthly CHD clinics. This brought about better patient care and an increase in QOF points.

GP practice

One practice improved flu vaccination uptake in care homes by 37% and subsequently won a best practice award.

Dentistry

At one dental practice, the issue was getting patients to sign the patient exemption declaration forms correctly. A new system was established which resulted in a 62% improvement.

Additional participant comments:

"The opportunity to develop quality improvement skills with our primary and secondary care fellow professionals is a rare occasion. The groups attending worked closely together, establishing networks which will continue to prove fruitful for all of us."
NHS pathology quality and systems manager

"We are using the skills we developed to monitor and improve our working environment as a practice team and each member is enhancing their skills in implementing change."
GP