All Hands QI Opportunity

Tue, 01/26/2016 - 16:15 -- brandi_wamhoff

Hello Fellow QI Innovators,

I feel very lucky that I have been granted an opportunity to have the undivided attention of 60+ staff for our upcoming All Hands (All Staff) meeting on February 26th.  In fact, I am so grateful for this chance, I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to come up with the perfect QI Activity/Topic.   I met with my QI Committee and they really stressed the importance of using real life examples of problem scenarios that we would actually come face to face with at the health department.  Where I am having difficulty is in finding a way to make learning about QI "fun" while also using our time wisely to  tackle some issues that we may be currently facing and for which we could incorporate QI.  Is it even plausible to do both?

I guess my question is if anyone has any great examples of activities, topics, or trainings they have implemented at thier organization that were really successful?  Also, any advice is appreciated as I am still fairly new at this! 

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Submitted by Torney Smith on

Hi Brandi -

I think your challenge is a common one. In our agency we have found that doing just-in-time training that applies to prokects that staff are currently working on has been most successful.  We have what we call a QI Learning Co-Op in which we provide tools applicable to the specific project and where they are in terms of process. We are fortunate to have highly qualified individuals that can offer the direct guidance to individuals and teams. The co-ops have been great successes with 40+ attendees from a staff of 220. There have been two annual co-ops that last 5 to 7 sessions nad have helped projects move forward significantly.

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Submitted by brandi_wamhoff on

Thank you for sharing Torney!

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Brandi Wamhoff, MPH
Kane County Health Department
Data and Quality Coordinator

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Submitted by wwilliams on

Hi Brandi,

60+ people is a lot to keep engaged. I would recommend dividing the group into smaller sections (10-15 - ideal 7-10). Depending on what method you use and how much time you have - you could for example, divide them into P-D-S-A. The PLAN group could learn a tool or two to define a QI project (i.e. map a process, complete a SIPOC (supplier, input, customer, output, customer matrix). It would be helpful to give them homework ahead of time to start thinking about problem areas and pain points.  The DO group could develop a visual management tool (kanban) to capture team process - such as food safety inspections. The STUDY group could use a spagetti diagram to improve the flow of a front counter area. The ACTION group could use a tree diagram to map out the steps to share improvement changes with staff (keys steps to implementation. Of course, this depends  on how much time you have. Ideally, you would want each team to experience each phase. I concurr with Torney, just-in-time training is the most effective and rather then made up scenraios like I mentioned above - if they went through a specific QI problem all the better. Best of luck.

 

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Kindest regards,

Wanda Williams
Quality Management Consultant/Accreditation Coordinator
http://www.tpchd.org ~ http://www.phcfe.org

Submitted by brandi_wamhoff on

This is great.  Thank you so much for sharing Wanda!

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Brandi Wamhoff, MPH
Kane County Health Department
Data and Quality Coordinator

Submitted by gkroberts on

Hi Brandi, YES QI can be fun and effective! It may help to start small by introducing a QI activity not related to work, such as improving your morning routine or trying to squeeze a workout into your schedule (see Everyday/personal QI link below). Then try and apply the same process to one in the health department, such as improving patient wait times. Using colorful sticky notes and breaking into small groups to do a process map/root cause analysis makes the activity a little more fun than just being lectured.

You may find some of these other community forum topics helpful in designing your training:

Good luck, and please let us know what you end up deciding to use because I am sure others could find it helpful too!

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov

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Submitted by Grace Gorenflo on

Hi Brandi,

I'm not sure if this is feasible as I'm not sure of the length of time of the meeting, the room set-up and your availability to your staff post-All Hands meeting.  That being said: because QI is about process improvement, and because flow charts can be so revealing about process problems, another tactic could be to ask participants to identify problems and come to the meeting prepared to work on a specific problem as a team.  The teams could be from a single division or program, or they could be cross-cutting. During the meeting have each team complete and analyze a flow chart that depicts the process surrounding the problem.  This approach would reinforce QI as being about processes and not people; it would provide some hands-on experience with a simple and powerful QI tool; it will provide some direction on how to approach process improvement; and hopefully it will whet some appetites for more.  Good luck!

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