Process engineering for primary care: Quality improvement and population health

A fundamental paradox of the health care delivery systems in many industrialized nations is that desired population health metrics are often not achieved despite large expenditures in the health care delivery system. For example, the United States commits nearly 18% of its GDP to the health care delivery system, the largest amount of any nation, yet is 37th in achieving health or health care delivery metrics. This article addresses how general practice can be an important driver of population health in the Chinese health care delivery system through the application of quality improvement methods. The article shows examples of how the cause-and-effect diagram, the process map, and the plan, do, study, act (PDSA) cycle are important techniques to assist primary care practitioners for improving population health.