Action 5: Integrate Professional Wellbeing into Quality Improvement

At a glance

In Action 5, integrate professional wellbeing measures into an ongoing quality improvement project at your hospital. Use the quadruple aim quality improvement framework to make sure that professional wellbeing is a priority in any quality improvement activities.

About the Action

Purpose

Integrate professional wellbeing measures into an ongoing quality improvement project at your hospital. It is important to consider the impact on your workforce when undertaking any quality improvement project and recognize that workers are at the center of healthcare systems.

Action 5 in a six-step sequence. It has an icon of a clipboard with a checklist and large checkmark at the top.
Action 5 is to integrate professional wellbeing into quality improvement.

Key concept

Quadruple Aim Quality Improvement recognizes professional wellbeing as a key outcome that is essential to improving your hospital.1 It helps ensure that quality improvement projects do not compromise professional wellbeing and rather measure the impact of these projects on the workforce.2

Case study

Integrating professional wellbeing measures into quality improvement projects can support both healthcare worker wellbeing and patient care quality. Michigan Medicine implemented a quality improvement project to streamline the scheduling process for physician assistants (PAs) in surgery. To reduce the mental burden on PAs, the project team developed a predictive model tool for decision-making and patient scheduling.

This model:

  • Improved patient screening with defined risk factors,
  • Fostered better patient safety outcomes, and
  • Incorporated human oversight.

Instead of every surgical case requiring manual review, approximately 75% of these cases can be reviewed and approved by the model.

This optimization in scheduling led to:

  • More than 100 hours of PA time saved per month
  • Time shifted away from repetitive, onerous tasks and towards patient care
African American man in a shirt, tie, and physician's coat smiles slightly as he uses a tablet.
Michigan Medicine's predictive model for physician assistants reduced mental burden.

Guide Connection: This case study aligns with the campaign's focus on integrating professional wellbeing into quality improvement projects. By reducing cognitive load and streamlining processes, the project supports both healthcare worker wellbeing and patient care quality.

Action 5 resources

Download the resources below to choose an ongoing quality improvement project. Then identify which professional wellbeing measures you will integrate into this project.

Quadruple Aim Quality Improvement Guide

List of Professional Wellbeing Measures

Customizable materials

Explore customizable graphics and promotional materials to communicate about professional wellbeing efforts with your staff.

Man in scrubs speaks to hospital executive in a hospital hallway, with a icon of a clipboard with a checklist.
Use these materials to show your commitment to professional wellbeing.

  1. Download and open the PDF. You will see a highlighted field of editable text. Each poster has a portion of bracketed text for you to type in your custom message. For example: [INSERT HOSPITAL-SPECIFIC URL].
  2. You can also customize the poster with your hospital’s logo. We recommend using a white logo with a transparent background. The preferred file type is a .png file. To insert the logo, click on the “LOGO IPSUM” graphic — from here, a window will open prompting you to select your logo file.
  3. After inserting the logo, be sure to save your customized poster.
  1. Freeley D [2017]. The triple aim or the quadruple aim? Four points to help set your strategy. Boston, MA: Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
  2. Bodenheimer T, Sinsky C [2014]. From triple to quadruple aim: Care of the patient requires care of the provider. Ann Fam Med 12(6):573-576.