Table 1 Study selection criteria

Participants

Teams of health professionals responsible for improving the health of their populations and/or providing patient care in any health care setting

Groups that do not include health professionals or that are conducted in a non-health care/non-public health setting or that only involve students.

Intervention

CQI that includes

(i) use of measurement and data analysis to assess and review the effect of changes;

(ii) review and analysis of a process or system used to deliver clinical care to identify sources of variation and areas for improvement;

(iii) an iterative procedure within a continuous process; and

(iv) a structured process improvement method or problem-solving approach that is used to plan and test changes to the work process.

Interventions targeting the improvement of administrative, management, or other processes not directly related to clinical care.

Comparison

Current usual practice (non-active control), different CQI strategies, or other non-CQI interventions to manage organizational change.

Outcome

Any objective measure of health care professional performance (e.g., adherence to recommended practice or process of care) or patient outcome (e.g., pain, health-related quality of life, function, mortality).

Study design

RCTs