Quality improvement in the ambulatory surgical setting.

Quality improvement is considered part of "business as usual" in the health care field. Some institutions have progressed further into their quality improvement efforts than others. Nonetheless, there is always the opportunity to learn from the efforts of others and to adopt their methods for use in one's own setting when possible. Included in this article is a case study outlining the use of the FOCUS PDCA methodology for quality improvement. The information identifies ways of introducing and beginning quality improvement efforts in a way that can be translated into other ambulatory health care settings.