How to Write a Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

It is not uncommon for those involved in hospital- or healthcare organization–based quality improvement (QI) initiatives to implement a robust QI project, present the results within the organization, celebrate wins, and quickly move on to the next project that demands attention. This rapid cycle turnover of QI projects leaves little time or energy for those involved to publish their findings to a broader, academic audience, despite the likely usefulness of these projects for others beyond the walls of the home institution.

For an already overburdened healthcare professional, it is likely that the typical reaction to formal QI publication is met with dread or the perpetual “I’ll get around to it.” However, the academic publication of your QI project could be much simpler than you previously imagined.

The purpose of this piece is to provide a succinct, actionable guide to translating your quality improvement project plan into a formal publication available to the world. The following framework is based on the SQUIRE 2.0 guidelines. SQUIRE is considered the gold standard for describing broad-based QI efforts in healthcare.