This section of CEHI contains details of Plan Do Study Act cycles that have been carried out to improve service delivery in Gateshead. What is a Plan Do Study Act cycle? Read on...
We are all trying to improve the way we work and deliver services. Gateshead Primary Care Trust has a web page dedicated to policies and procedures which are put in place to ensure that services are delivered in a way that meets key standards. However, within the framework of these standards, there is much that can be done at a local level to continuously improve services. One method which has been widely adopted to guide this work is called the Plan Do Study Act or PDSA cycle.
The PDSA cycle was developed in the 1930's by Dr Walter Shewhart in the US. The model describes four stages that you should go through when improving a process:
1. Plan what you are going to do, after gathering some evidence about an identified problem.
2. Do it, usually on a small scale in the first place.
3. Study the results. Did the plan work?
4. Act on the results. If the plan was a success, develop a standard procedure. If it wasn't, try something else by returning to the Plan phase.
An extra step has been added in the model shown below. This asks if the action being considered addresses one of Gateshead's Public Health priorities. The model belcomes "Prioritise, Plan, Do, Study, Act" or "PPDSA".
Ref: adapted from The NHS Improvement Network East Midlands