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PDSA: A Comprehensive Guide to the Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle for Process Improvement, Lecture notes of Personal Health

The pdsa cycle, also known as plan-do-study-act or pdca, is an iterative, four-stage model for problem-solving and implementing change. A detailed explanation of each stage, including recruiting a team, drafting an aim statement, describing the current context and process, identifying causes and alternatives, implementing the action plan, studying the results, and reflecting on the outcomes. By following this cycle, organizations can continuously improve their processes and increase efficiency.

What you will learn

  • What are the four stages of the PDSA cycle?
  • What tools can be used to identify causes of a problem in the PDSA cycle?
  • How can organizations use the PDSA cycle to improve their processes?

Typology: Lecture notes

2021/2022

Uploaded on 09/27/2022

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PDSA: Plan-Do-Study-Act
What is PDSA?
PDSA, or Plan-Do-Study-Act, is an iterative, four-stage problem-solving
model used for improving a process or carrying out change.
When using the PDSA cycle, it’s important to include internal and external
customers; they can provide feedback about what works and what
doesn’t. The customer defines quality, so it would make sense to also
involve them in the process when appropriate or feasible, to increase
acceptance of the end result. (If you’re unsure about, who your customers
are, you may want to create a customer chain to assist in identification.)
In applying PDSA, ask yourself three questions:
1. What are we trying to accomplish?
2. How will we know that a change is an improvement?
3. What changes can we make that will result in an improvement?
Stage 1: Plan
A. Recruit Team
Assemble a team that has knowledge of the problem or opportunity for
improvement. Consider the strengths each team member brings—look for
engaged, forward-thinking staff.
After recruiting team members, identify roles and responsibilities, set
timelines, and establish a meeting schedule.
B. Draft an Aim Statement
Describe what you want to accomplish in an Aim Statement. Try to answer
those three fundamental questions:
1. What are we trying to accomplish?
2. How will we know that a change is an improvement?
3. What change can we make that will result in improvement?
Also called: Rapid Cycle Improvement, PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)
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PDSA: Plan-Do-Study-Act

What is PDSA?

PDSA, or Plan-Do-Study-Act, is an iterative, four-stage problem-solving model used for improving a process or carrying out change. When using the PDSA cycle, it’s important to include internal and external customers; they can provide feedback about what works and what doesn’t. The customer defines quality, so it would make sense to also involve them in the process when appropriate or feasible, to increase acceptance of the end result. (If you’re unsure about, who your customers are, you may want to create a customer chain to assist in identification.) In applying PDSA, ask yourself three questions:

  1. What are we trying to accomplish? 2. How will we know that a change is an improvement? 3. What changes can we make that will result in an improvement?

Stage 1: Plan

A. Recruit Team

Assemble a team that has knowledge of the problem or opportunity for improvement. Consider the strengths each team member brings—look for engaged, forward-thinking staff. After recruiting team members, identify roles and responsibilities, set timelines, and establish a meeting schedule.

B. Draft an Aim Statement

Describe what you want to accomplish in an Aim Statement. Try to answer those three fundamental questions:

  1. What are we trying to accomplish?
  2. How will we know that a change is an improvement?
  3. What change can we make that will result in improvement? Also called: Rapid Cycle Improvement, PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)

C. Describe Current Context and Process

Brainstorm Examine your current process. Start by asking the team these basic questions:

  • What are we doing now?
  • How do we do it?
  • What are the major steps in the process?
  • Who is involved?
  • What do they do?
  • What is done well?
  • What could be done better? You might have already answered the last two questions if you have performed a SWOT analysis. Try a Swim Lane Map You may find it helpful to construct a swim lane map to visually describe your process. Creating a process flow or at least depicting the current process can be very useful. If your team runs into road blocks, you might have found where the problem is occurring—or maybe the right person for identifying a missing step is not at the table. Gather More Detail Once the general structure is completed, these can be some more helpful questions to ask:
  • How long does the process currently take? Each step?
  • Is there variation in the way the process is currently completed?

D. Describe the Problem

Using the Aim Statement created in Step B., state your desired accomplishments, and use data and information to measure how your organization meets/does not meet those accomplishments. For example: If your objective is to maximize your staff’s quality of work life, you might find evidence by surveying employees on workplace stressors. Write a Problem Statement Write a problem statement to clearly summarize your team’s consensus on the problem. You may find it helpful to prioritize problems, if your team has identified more than one, and/or include a justification of why you chose your problem(s).

E. Identify Causes and Alternatives

Analyze Causes For the problem in your problem statement, work to identify causes of the problem using tools such as control charts, fishbones, and work flow process maps. The end of the cause analysis should summarize the cause analysis by describing and justifying the root causes.

Stage 4: Act

Reflect on Plan and Outcomes

  • If your team determined the plan resulted in success, standardize the improvement and begin to use it regularly. After some time, return to Stage 1: Plan and re-examine the process to learn where it can be further improved.
  • If your team believes a different approach would be more success- ful, return to Stage 1: Plan, and develop a new and different plan that might result in success. The PDSA cycle is ongoing, and organizations become more efficient as they intuitively adopt PDSA into their planning.

Celebrate Improvements and Lessons Learned

  • Communicate accomplishments to internal and external customers
  • Take steps to preserve your gains and sustain your accomplishments
  • Make long-term plans for additional improvements
  • Conduct iterative PDSA cycles when needed