Introducing quality improvement as an intrinsic part of healthcare

Healthcare systems worldwide face the challenge of recognising and improving safety, timeliness, quality and productivity. The authors describe how the COM-B model, developed by Michie et al in 2011 to explain and change criminal behaviour, is useful in identifying what skills and capabilities healthcare providers require to improve their systems. These skills include the intellectual capability to understand, design and improve healthcare processes; the opportunity to do this in their daily work; the motivation to do this - in particular recognising the reasons not to change; and finally unlearning the behaviours based on historical system beliefs that are now invalid. Individual self-awareness and organisational leadership are required to give staff the time and resources to reflect, experiment and learn.