Day 11: Unwarranted Variation

Variation can be warranted or unwarranted.  One goal of quality improvement is reducing unwarranted variation.

 

To reduce unwarranted variation, it is important to identify what in one place/team/service leads to different outcomes.

 

For example, the culture of a team may affect how they handle complaints, which will impact how the complainant is treated and may lose opportunities to learn.

 

With a fixed process, like complaints management, eliminating process variation can still be challenging, but easier than when processes are less rigid.  With more fluid processes, the right culture and leadership are critical to ensuring that service users have good outcomes.