Quality improvement as a primary approach to change in healthcare: a precarious, self-limiting choice?

Successful quality improvement (QI) initiatives should encourage change at the individual, team, and organizational levels. The authors of this article summarize the “self-limiting cascade” of quality improvement approaches, whereby QI programs prioritize process-technical strengths (e.g., quality metrics, “zero harm” goals) over participants’ emotional experience and sociotechnical design elements, which can ultimately hinder program performance.