Discussion 8-1: Sustaining Change
Healthcare organizations should make quality improvement initiatives sustainable because it is only by so doing that they can reap continuous benefits from them. However, most facilities fail to maintain change interventions due to failure to implement the right strategies post-implementation (Silver et al., 2016). Leaders of healthcare organizations and other employees should be adequately informed about the strategies that they should implement to make change initiatives sustainable (Chelagat et al., 2021). The purpose of this discussion is to describe two elements that play the most significant role in sustaining change in healthcare organizations.
The two elements that I believe are the most significant facilitators of sustainable change in healthcare organizations include leadership support and effective continuous communication. According to Silver et al. (2016), the sustainability of a quality improvement project is partly influenced by contextual factors. These are elements that are found within the local setting where the project was implemented. Leadership support is a contextual element that plays a crucial role in sustaining change. Strong leadership support after the implementation of a quality improvement intervention helps to maintain a clear vision, promotes team motivation, and increases team engagement (Chelagat et al., 2021). These improvements contribute to sustainable change.
Effective communication using appropriate tools facilitates sustainable change following the implementation of a quality improvement project. Some of the tools that a healthcare organization can use to ensure constant communication with stakeholders are performance and process boards. Organizations can also use regular meetings to communicate improvement results to stakeholders (Silver et al., 2016). Chelagat et al. (2021) identified communication as one of the drivers of sustainability in quality improvement projects.
References
Chelagat, T., Kokwaro, G., Onyango, J., & Rice, J. (2021). Sustainability drivers and inhibitors for the health system performance improvement projects in selected health facilities in Kenya: a qualitative study. BMJ Open, 11(7), e035475. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035475
Silver, S. A., McQuillan, R., Harel, Z., Weizman, A. V., Thomas, A., Nesrallah, G., Bell, C. M., Chan, C. T., & Chertow, G. M. (2016). How to sustain change and support continuous quality improvement. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology: CJASN, 11(5), 916–924. https://doi.org/10.2215/CJN.11501015