Tools for Grantees: Quality Management Manual < Previous | Home | Next >  III. Step-By-Step Quality Management Guide: Nine Critical Steps   Remeasurement   •  Determine interval for remeasurement. Remeasure indicator after change has been implemented.    •  Look for incremental improvement.    •  Communicate results to team, staff and leadership.    •  Determine need for and/or level of remeasurement on an ongoing basis. Develop a plan for sustained improvement.

	Determine interval for remeasurement.  TOP
	Remeasure indicator after change has been implemented.

In order to determine if your improvements have been successful, you must remeasure. Use the same data collection method and same sampling strategy as your baseline data, but apply it to a different data set. The new sample will need to represent a timeframe that will show whether the improvement strategy has had an impact. In other words, make sure enough time has elapsed for the changes to take hold. This is completely dependent on the performance measure and the change initiated, but 1 to 2 months is probably a good rule of thumb. It may take several re-measurement cycles to know whether it is the changes that impacted the data, or just chance.

Look for incremental improvement.  TOP

You are looking for incremental change to determine if your improvements have had the desired effect. Your first set of new data may show only a small increment of improvement or in some cases no improvement at all. Do not be discouraged. Improvements over time are the true test of a successful strategy. Re-assess the strategy to make sure that it was implemented as you expected. Pre-testing should help to avoid fully implementing strategies that will not have an impact. If no improvement is noted after several cycles of data collection, further analysis may be needed.

Communicate results to team, staff and leadership.  TOP

Feedback of the re-measurement results is critical. Wide dissemination of the results will help to keep the team, staff, and senior leadership involved in the process. At this point in time your program will have invested considerable time and resources on the project. Data can be very powerful as a motivational tool, so be sure to communicate the results.

To sustain improvements, data should be collected regularly at pre-established intervals and disseminated to key stakeholders. Do not underestimate the power of the data. If you have adequately engaged all staff in this process, they will be anxious to help maintain improvements. The team should be reconvened periodically to review the data and discuss any problems or new issues.

	Communicate results of the project to all levels of the organization, including consumers when appropriate.  TOP
	Remeasure indicator after change has been implemented.

In order to determine whether your changes are effective over time, a plan for remeasurement should be developed. In the early stages of the improvement you may want to re-measure on a monthly basis. Once the improvements are firmly entrenched, and you have reached your goal, the interval for re-measurement can be reduced. Integrate the data collection interval into your annual QM plan noting the monthly, quarterly or annual re-measurement. In some instances, remeasurement could be conducted every 6 months, 1 year or 2 years. There may also be times when the need for remeasurement no longer exists. Continue to feed back the results to the team, staff, and senior leadership.

Many things can hinder improvements and sustained performance over time such as:

1. Lack of an adequate QM organizational structure to support improvements over time;
2. Lack of ongoing communication and feedback to providers and staff;
3. Lack of periodic re-monitoring and feedback to providers and staff;
4. Staffing changes without sufficient training of new staff; and
5. Changing priorities and lack of interest.