What is a Collaborative?

The Collaborative Model is a method of quality improvement, developed by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, which enables rapid and sustainable improvements in outcomes for patients in an identified area of health care delivery.

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A Collaborative enables health services to learn from each other and recognised experts in this identified area of health care. A Collaborative is designed to implement change in small, manageable cycles, and identify where a change actually leads to improvement. There are four components:

  • identification of specific and measurable aims
  • measurement of improvement over time
  • identification of changes that facilitate the desired improvements
  • a series of Learning Cycles where teams implement identified changes.

Through Learning Workshops and Learning Cycles, health services share ideas for improvement, measure and benchmark outcomes and contribute to the future direction of best practice in the identified topic area.

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