Healthcare Quality Improvement and Productivity Planning Training Course

Course overview

Healthcare organisations are expected to improve patient safety, access, experience and clinical outcomes while managing workforce constraints, rising demand and finite capacity. Yet many improvement efforts stall because teams measure activity rather than value, select projects without a defensible baseline, or introduce changes without testing their operational effect. This course equips healthcare professionals to connect quality improvement work with productivity planning, so that clinical, operational and financial decisions are based on reliable data and practical process evidence.

Participants learn to define quality and productivity measures for hospitals, clinics, diagnostic services and support functions; map patient and information flows; identify waste, bottlenecks and variation; and build improvement projects around measurable aims. The course applies Lean, Six Sigma and the IHI Model for Improvement to healthcare settings, including demand-capacity analysis, run charts, control charts, root-cause analysis, standard work and PDSA testing. Participants also learn how to distinguish productive efficiency from unsafe cost reduction, incorporate patient safety safeguards, and report benefits credibly to senior stakeholders.

Instruction combines facilitated analysis, healthcare case studies, data exercises and team-based improvement workshops. Participants work with operational datasets, create process maps and control plans, and practise presenting recommendations to an executive review group. Each participant leaves with a documented Quality and Productivity Improvement Plan for a real or realistic service area, including a problem statement, baseline measures, project charter, future-state workflow, PDSA cycle and benefits-tracking approach.

The course is designed for experienced healthcare practitioners, managers and improvement specialists who need to lead cross-functional operational change rather than contribute only to isolated audit or compliance activity.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define balanced quality, safety, access and productivity measures for a healthcare service line
• Construct a SIPOC diagram and patient-flow value stream map to identify delays, handoffs and non-value-adding work
• Calculate demand, capacity, utilisation, cycle time and throughput from operational healthcare data
• Apply the IHI Model for Improvement to create measurable aims, change ideas and PDSA test plans
• Use Pareto charts, run charts and control charts to distinguish common-cause from special-cause variation
• Conduct root-cause analysis using fishbone diagrams, five whys and failure mode prioritisation
• Develop standard work and visual management controls that protect clinical quality during productivity changes
• Produce a Quality and Productivity Improvement Plan with quantified benefits, risks, ownership and review measures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Healthcare Quality Managers — who must translate quality priorities into measurable improvement portfolios
• Clinical Service Managers — who need to improve flow, staffing use and patient experience across their departments
• Operational Excellence and Lean Practitioners — who lead structured improvement projects in care settings
• Nurse Managers and Matrons — who manage ward processes, escalation pressures and frontline standard work
• Hospital Operations Managers — who are accountable for capacity, throughput and service performance
• Clinical Governance and Patient Safety Professionals — who need productivity initiatives to retain effective safety controls

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience of a healthcare service, department or operational process and be comfortable discussing measures such as waiting time, occupancy, activity, staffing, incidents or patient outcomes. Familiarity with basic Excel functions, including sorting, filtering and simple formulas, is assumed because participants work with operational datasets and charts. Prior exposure to Lean, Six Sigma, PDSA or quality accreditation is helpful but not required. Participants do not need advanced statistics, coding, Minitab experience, finance qualifications or formal project-management certification. Bringing a current improvement challenge or anonymised local data is encouraged.

Training methodology

The programme uses instructor-led teaching to establish methods, followed by healthcare-specific application throughout each day. Participants analyse anonymised outpatient, ward-flow and diagnostic-service datasets in Excel and Minitab; build process maps in small groups; and critique improvement proposals against safety, equity and operational constraints. Case studies require teams to select measures, interpret variation, design PDSA tests and defend a benefits case. On the final day, each participant develops and receives structured feedback on a Quality and Productivity Improvement Plan for workplace application.

Course outline

Day 1: Defining Healthcare Quality and Productivity

• Healthcare quality dimensions: safety, effectiveness, timeliness, equity and patient-centred care
• Productivity concepts for clinical and support services
• Balancing measures and unintended-consequence monitoring
• Translating strategic priorities into improvement aims
• Project charter structure and problem-statement writing
• SIPOC analysis for patient pathways
• Baseline data definitions, data quality and operational measurement plans

Workshop: Participants develop a project charter and SIPOC diagram for a delayed patient pathway, defining scope, stakeholders, baseline measures and improvement aim.

Day 2: Flow, Capacity and Process Waste

• Patient-flow value stream mapping conventions
• Identifying queues, handoffs, rework and waiting waste
• Demand profiling by time, day and patient type
• Capacity calculation using staffing, equipment and room constraints
• Utilisation, cycle time, lead time and throughput measures
• Bottleneck analysis and theory of constraints principles
• Future-state process design and workload balancing

Workshop: Teams map an outpatient diagnostic pathway, calculate demand-capacity gaps and produce a future-state workflow with proposed bottleneck interventions.

Day 3: Data Analysis and Variation Control

• Operational dataset preparation in Microsoft Excel
• Pareto analysis for defects, delays and demand categories
• Run charts and median-based shift and trend rules
• Control chart selection for counts, rates and continuous measures
• Common-cause and special-cause variation interpretation
• Stratification by site, clinician, shift and patient cohort
• Minitab Statistical Software for control-chart construction

Workshop: Participants analyse a service-performance dataset, build a Pareto chart and control chart, and write an evidence-based interpretation of the variation.

Day 4: Designing and Testing Safer Improvements

• IHI Model for Improvement and three guiding questions
• PDSA cycle design for small-scale clinical testing
• Fishbone diagrams and five whys root-cause analysis
• Failure mode and effects analysis for process-change risk
• Change ideas using Lean standard work and mistake-proofing
• Visual management, daily huddles and escalation triggers
• TeamSTEPPS communication tools for cross-functional implementation

Workshop: Teams complete a root-cause analysis and PDSA test plan for a medication turnaround or discharge-delay scenario, including safety safeguards.

Day 5: Sustaining Results and Building the Improvement Case

• Benefits realisation: cashable, non-cashable and quality benefits
• Productivity baselines and benefit-calculation assumptions
• Implementation roadmaps, roles and governance checkpoints
• Control plans, audit routines and response thresholds
• Stakeholder analysis and resistance-management actions
• Executive dashboard design for quality and productivity review
• Improvement-story presentation using situation, evidence, action and results

Workshop: Each participant finalises and presents a Quality and Productivity Improvement Plan containing a charter, measures, future-state design, PDSA cycle, control plan and benefits case.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Minitab Statistical Software, IHI Model for Improvement, AHRQ TeamSTEPPS

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions