A range of QI approaches has been applied extensively in USAID-assisted countries during the past 20 years to strengthen health and family planning services. Traditional improvement strategies like training, supervision, and accreditation have increasingly been supplemented by modern QI methods such as collaboratives, team-based problem-solving, standards-based management, performance improvement, and others. These methods have demonstrated impact beyond that seen with training or supervision alone.

Because many factors—including individual provider competence and motivation, health system characteristics, and how service delivery is organized—influence health care quality, there is no single best approach to improvement. Research suggests that combinations of interventions have proved more effective than single interventions, particularly when measures to enhance health provider knowledge and skills are combined with interventions to facilitate and reinforce performance in everyday practice.

Each of the approaches listed below has been applied to improve health care. Click on the name of an approach to learn more about it and link to related resources.

• Accreditation
• Audit and Feedback
• Certification
• Client-oriented, Provider-efficient (COPE)
• Continuous Quality Improvement / Total Quality Management
• Improvement Collaboratives
• Lean
• Licensing
• Organization of Work
• Patient and Community Engagement
• Performance-based Incentives
• Performance Improvement
• Process Improvement and Redesign
• Reminders
• Six Sigma
• Standards and Evidence-based Guidelines
• Standards-based Management and Recognition
• Supervision
• Training

Suggest a New Resource