What is the process of evaluating and improving the safety and quality of healthcare services called?

• A. Quality improvement (QI) or continuous quality improvement.
• B. Standard of care.
• C. Risk management.
• D. Compliance auditing.

Answer: (A)

Quality improvement is the process of evaluating and improving the safety and quality of healthcare services. It involves systematically collecting data on performance and patient outcomes, identifying gaps, testing changes, and measuring whether those changes lead to better care. It's often described as continuous quality improvement because the effort is ongoing, with iterative cycles to plan, implement, and assess improvements. A common framework used is the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle: plan a change, implement it, study the results, and act based on what’s learned. This approach helps teams reduce errors, standardize best practices, and raise patient safety and quality over time.

The other terms describe related ideas but aren’t the same continuous process. The standard of care defines the expected level of practice in typical situations, not a process for improving care. Risk management focuses on identifying and mitigating risks to patients, which is important for safety but doesn’t by itself constitute the ongoing quality-improvement cycle. Compliance auditing checks whether practices meet rules and regulations, rather than driving continuous enhancement of care quality.