Overview
Total Marks: 90 Marks Part A (Maximum 1,750 words in total) Question 1 – Case Analysis: Quality and Risk in Healthcare Improvement Case Description: A large public hospital in the UK has recently identified a concerning trend in delayed administration of critical medications in its emergency department. Over a three-month period, 18% of patients with severe infections did not receive antibiotics within the recommended one hour target, resulting in prolonged hospital stays and, in a few cases, readmissions. Staff interviews revealed inconsistent communication between nurses and junior doctors during shift changes, unclear prioritization of patients in triage, and occasional shortages of key antibiotics during peak hours. The hospital’s management has launched an internal review to understand the underlying causes and design an improvement plan to ensure timely medication delivery. The clinical governance committee has emphasized the need for a structured approach that integrates both quality improvement (QI) and risk management principles. Task: Using this case, conduct a comprehensive quality and risk analysis. Identify key quality and safety risks, analyse their potential causes and consequences, and discuss how structured improvement methodologies such as Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) could be applied to reduce these risks. Include references to relevant healthcare quality frameworks or literature to support your analysis. Question 2 – Understanding the PDCA Cycle Describe the four stages of the PDCA cycle in detail. Explain the content, milestones, and purpose of each stage, highlighting how each contributes to continuous improvement in healthcare projects. Provide examples or references from healthcare improvement literature to demonstrate good practice. Part B (Maximum 1,750 words in total) Question 1 – Designing a PDCA Improvement Project Propose a PDCA improvement project to address a healthcare problem of your choice. Clearly describe the problem and analyse its possible causes using the Fishbone Diagram and Pareto Chart tools. Identify the vital few causes (two key factors) and propose a suitable, evidence-based solution to address them. Question 2 – Implementation and Evaluation Explain in detail how you will implement the proposed solution. Specify how you will measure improvement—that is, which metrics or indicators will be used to assess progress. Describe your data collection plan, including the type of data, frequency, and responsible team members. Discuss how you will ensure reliability, validity, and sustainability of improvement results.