Model for Improvement and Breakthrough Series Model

The most widely used and popular QI methodology is the Model For Improvement. The Model For Improvement askes three fundamental questions:

• What are we trying to accomplish? (AIMS)
• How will we know that a change is an improvement? (MEASURES)
• What change can we make that will result in improvement? (IDEAS)

Source: Langley GL, Moen RD, Nolan KM, Nolan TW, Norman CL, and Provost LP. The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance. 2nd Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2009

The answers to these three questions will help your team determine quality improvement aims (question 1) and related measures (question 2). Then, you can brainstorm specific ideas (question 3) that your team can test through Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to see if they help your team accomplish its aim.

Breakthrough Series Model (BTS)

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) developed the BTS model in 2003 to help healthcare organizations make “breakthrough” improvements in quality while also reducing costs.

A Breakthrough Series Collaborative is a short-term (6- to 15-month) learning health system that brings together a large number of teams from hospitals or clinics to seek improvement in a focused topic area. The QI Collaboratives can range in size from a small learning network (5-10 healthcare teams) to a large learning network which can include hundreds of healthcare teams. The Quality Networks learning networks vary in sizes of 10-175 teams. These teams typically participate in Learning Sessions over the course of the Collaborative and allow for peer-to-peer learning and discussion. Below is a visual representation of a BTS Model Project in the Quality Networks.

To learn more about the Breakthrough Series Model, read the BTS whitepaper from IHI. To access this resource you need to create a free account with IHI.

The Breakthrough Series: IHI’s Collaborative Model for Achieving Breakthrough Improvement. IHI Innovation Series white paper. Boston: Institute for Healthcare Improvement; 2003. (Available on www.IHI.org)