Quality Improvement and Evaluation Practice in Healthcare

The program is linked to the Health Foundations Q Communities Evaluation Special Interest Group (SIG) and is funded from the Q Communities “Connecting Communities” fund. The aim is to connect QI and evaluation practice and practitioners, and the objectives are to:

• Increase connections, networks and build relationships between evaluators and quality improvement practitioners and researchers across health and social care (and beyond)

• Identify ways of bridging the gap between evaluation and quality improvement practice

• Increase knowledge and practical skills in evaluation in relation to QI

• Develop a guide and tools to support evaluation of QI programmes

Background to the programme:

The team at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield is led by Dr Steven Ariss. The project team includes: Dr Karen Ritchie (Healthcare Improvement Scotland), Dr Emma Gibbard (University of Bath), Dr John Richmond, Jennifer Read, Anna Cantrell and Alf Theodorou.

Evaluation of quality improvement programmes remains challenging for QI practitioners, as appropriate evaluation methods for such programmes continue to be developed and are primarily the domain of academic researchers rather than those working within health and care environments. The SIG aims to bridge the researcher/QI practitioner divide, to provide practical support for QI practitioners and help them evaluate their programmes.