An example of plan, do, study, act

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Use the three questions

1. What are we trying to accomplish?
   The team wants to improve patient service scores in the psychiatry department by 25% in the next 6 months.

1. How will we know that a change is an improvement?
   They'll measure patient survey scores to figure out if the change is an improvement.

1. What changes will help us improve?
   Offering consistent information over the phone will help the team improve service.

Plan

Paul and Gwen will draft a script for their use and try it tomorrow. They will document how happy callers were with the information. The team will meet briefly on Monday at the end of the shift.

Do

Paul and Gwen agreed on the script and used it to answer the phone. They asked each caller if the information was helpful.

Study

They learned that offering to schedule a next appointment was helpful to callers and they also learned that saying, "Thank you for calling us," was inappropriate for their department.

Act

The team met and the script was changed to end calls with, "Is there anything else I can help you with?" Five more staff will try the new script tomorrow.