Flip No. 59

The Language of Quality Improvement Goes Incognito

How Clarifying the Jargon of QI Could Improve Engagement

By Durham Lab Participants

Developed at Flip the Clinic Lab: Durham

The language of quality improvement is notoriously jargon-filled. At best, the terms make it hard for the average person to grasp the discipline’s ideas, and at its worst, the terms can be exclusionary and alienating. By bringing quality improvement language into the vernacular of average person’s thoughts and speech, those promoting quality improvement within an organization (starting with the members of this Flip group) will be better able to engage every stakeholder in health and health care into participating in meaningful change—and change that directly addresses the things within the system that matter to each person most.

The first step is to identify and translate a set of resources that can be made available online. The next step is to create a pilot lexicon with companion quality improvement activities. These assets would be piloted and then engagement would be compared against the quality improvement programs presented in its standard parlance. This Flip hopes that by making the language of quality improvement more accessible, stakeholders will become clearer on QI’s benefits and engagement will climb.

What does a pilot test of this Flip look like to you? Are you ready to put your plan in action? Become a pilot site and join this Flip team!

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