What it means
A system that measures care against standards, finds gaps and works to close them. It includes audits of charts, tracking rates of falls, infections and pressure injuries, and reviewing errors and near misses. Quality improvement (QI) is the related ongoing effort to keep making care better.
For the nurse
Incident reports are part of quality assurance: they help find weak spots in the system, so they are not kept in the client's chart and are not a punishment.
At a glance
| Abbreviations | QA |
|---|---|
| Also written | QA |
Related terms
sentinel event
An unexpected event in health care that causes a client's death, permanent harm or severe temporary harm.
clinical practice guideline
A set of recommendations for care of a particular condition, written by experts after reviewing the research.
near miss
An error or unsafe situation that was caught before it reached the client, so no harm was done.
incident report
A written record of an unexpected event in a health care setting that caused or could have caused harm.