In this Discussion, you examine a health care problem or issue and consider how you could apply the concept of positive deviance to produce systems-level change that leads to improved quality.

To prepare:

• Review the information in this week’s Learning Resources, including the first chapter in Pascale, Sternin, and Sternin book and the Bradley, Curry, Ramanadhan, Rowe, Nembhard, and Krumholz article.
• Reflect on health care quality problems or issues that warrant systems-level change. Consider the significance of each problem/issue. Identify one, in particular, that you would like to focus on for this Discussion. Note: You may use the quality improvement issue that you selected for your Course Project, if appropriate.
• With this problem or issue in mind:
  • How would you apply the principles of positive deviance to address this problem/issue? What specific steps would you take to move from identification of the problem/issue through evaluation of outliers to implementation of a larger scale change to improve quality?
  • What examples of positive deviance, if any, are you aware of related to this problem/issue? Conduct research as necessary to see if you can locate one or more instances of positive deviance.

By Day 3

Post a brief description of the health care quality problem or issue you selected and explain how it could be addressed using the principles of positive deviance.