Quality Improvement
Building the business case for quality improvement: A framework for evaluating return on investment | Future Healthcare Journal
By Amar Shah and Steven Course
This article provides a framework for evaluating the return on investment of quality improvement efforts, emphasizing that value should be assessed through both financial and non-financial outcomes. It highlights the importance of making the case for improvement by connecting better quality, efficiency, experience, and sustainability. This resource supports conversations about how campus health investments can generate meaningful institutional value beyond immediate cost savings.1
How is return on investment from quality improvement programmes conceptualised by mental healthcare leaders and why: a qualitative study | BMC Health Services Research
By S’thembile Thusini, Tayana Soukup, Kia-Chong Chua, and Claire Henderson
This qualitative study explores how leaders in mental health services understand and define return on investment from quality improvement work. The findings show that ROI is often viewed more broadly than financial return alone, including benefits such as improved care quality, workforce experience, service efficiency, and patient outcomes. This broader definition of value is useful for institutions evaluating improvement efforts related to student mental health and well-being.2
The four main domains of the concept of return-on-investment from healthcare quality improvement programmes | International Journal for Quality in Health Care
By S’thembile Thusini, Tayana Soukup, and Claire Henderson
This article identifies four major domains for understanding return on investment in healthcare quality improvement programs. By broadening ROI beyond traditional financial metrics, it helps leaders consider how improvement initiatives contribute to quality, experience, capacity, and long-term system performance. Campus Health 360 offers this framing to help institutions describe and measure the value of improvement work in a more complete and credible way.3
Call to action: Better care, better health, and greater value in college health | Journal of American College Health
By Carlo Ciotoli, Allison J. Smith, Richard P. Keeling
This article applies the Triple Aim framework to college health, calling for better care, better health, and greater value in the student health setting. It argues that campus health systems can advance student success by aligning clinical care, population health, and resource stewardship. The resource closely aligns with Campus Health 360’s focus on helping institutions build integrated, outcomes-oriented approaches to student health and well-being.4
An immunization quality improvement learning collaborative in the college health setting | Journal of American College Health
By Linda Y Fu, Allison Smith, Carlo Ciotoli, Martha Dannenbaum, and Marni Jacobs
This study describes a quality improvement learning collaborative focused on improving immunization practices in the college health setting. It demonstrates how shared aims, peer learning, data review, and structured improvement methods can help institutions make measurable progress on a common health priority. Campus Health 360 draws from this example as a practical model for using collaboratives to accelerate improvement across campuses.5
Quality improvement in patient distribution at a major university student health center | Journal of American College Health
By Edward J Hoskins, Sarah A Sayger, James S Westman
This article presents a quality improvement effort designed to improve patient distribution at a major university student health center. It illustrates how operational changes, workflow analysis, and data-informed decision-making can improve service delivery in campus healthcare environments. This article provides a concrete example of applying quality improvement methods to strengthen access, efficiency, and the student care experience.6
To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System | Institute of Medicine, 2000
By Linda T. Kohn, Janet M. Corrigan, and Molla S. Donaldson
This landmark Institute of Medicine report reframed medical error as a systems issue rather than simply a matter of individual performance. It calls for safer care through stronger reporting, learning, leadership, and system design. For Campus Health 360, the report reinforces the importance of creating campus health systems that learn from failures, reduce preventable harm, and support a culture of safety.7
Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century | Institute of Medicine, 2001
This Institute of Medicine report expands the quality agenda by calling for a health system that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. It emphasizes that better outcomes require redesigning systems of care rather than relying on incremental fixes. Campus Health 360 offers this framework to help institutions define what high-quality student health and well-being systems should look like across the full campus environment.8
The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance, 2009
By Gerald J. Langley, Ronald D. Moen, Kevin M. Nolan, Thomas W. Nolan, Clifford L. Norman, and Lloyd P. Provost
Langley and colleagues’ work on the Model for Improvement offers a practical roadmap for turning improvement ideas into disciplined tests of change. The framework combines clear aims, meaningful measures, and Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to help teams learn quickly and adapt as they go. Campus Health 360 uses this approach to support campuses in moving from broad priorities to concrete, measurable improvement efforts.9
The health care data guide: Learning from data for improvement, 2011
By Lloyd P. Provost and Sandra K. Murray
The Health Care Data Guide provides practical methods for using data to understand variation, track improvement, and support decision-making in healthcare settings. It helps teams distinguish real change from normal fluctuation and use measurement effectively throughout improvement work. This resource supports data-informed approaches to evaluating campus health needs, testing changes, and demonstrating progress over time.10
Out of the Crisis, 1982
By W. Edwards Deming
Deming’s Out of the Crisis is a foundational quality improvement text that emphasizes systems, variation, leadership, and continuous learning as essential to better performance. The book argues that improvement depends on changing the system in which people work, not simply exhorting individuals to do better. Campus Health 360 draws on Deming’s principles to help institutions build more reliable, learning-oriented approaches to student health and well-being.11
Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Model for Improvement
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Model for Improvement offers a simple, practical framework for testing and accelerating change. By asking what we are trying to accomplish, how we will know a change is an improvement, and what changes we can test, the model helps teams move from ideas to measurable action. Campus Health 360 applies this approach to support small tests of change that build learning and momentum across campus health initiatives. 12
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, NIST
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program provides a comprehensive framework for organizational assessment, leadership, strategy, customers, workforce, operations, and results. It helps organizations examine how well their systems are aligned and where opportunities exist for performance improvement. Campus Health 360 uses this systems-level perspective to help institutions think beyond individual programs and assess the overall maturity of their campus health and well-being infrastructure.13
Dr Mike Evans: An Illustrated Look at Quality Improvement in Health Care | Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Dr. Mike Evans’ illustrated video offers a clear and engaging introduction to quality improvement in healthcare. It breaks down the core concepts of systems thinking, measurement, small tests of change, and learning from practice in a way that is accessible to broad audiences. This video can serve as an inviting entry point for campus partners who are beginning to explore quality improvement methods.14
Citations:
- Shah, A., & Course, S. (2018). Building the business case for quality improvement: a framework for evaluating return on investment. Future healthcare journal, 5(2), 132–137. https://doi.org/10.7861/futurehosp.5-2-132.
- Thusini, S., Soukup, T., Chua, KC. et al. (2023). How is return on investment from quality improvement programmes conceptualised by mental healthcare leaders and why: a qualitative study. BMC Health Serv, Res 23, 1009. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09911-9.
- Thusini, S., Soukup, T., Henderson, C. (2026). The four main domains of the concept of return-on-investment from healthcare quality improvement programmes, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, Volume 38, Issue 3, July 2026, mzag089, https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzag089.
- Ciotoli, C., Smith, A. J., & Keeling, R. P. (2018). Call to action: Better care, better health, and greater value in college health. Journal of American College Health, 66(7), 625–639. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2018.1431908
- Fu, L., Smith, A., Ciotoli, C., Dannenbaum, M., Jacobs, M. (2023). An Immunization Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative in the College Health Setting. Journal of American College Health. 2023;71(8):2612-2621. doi:10.1080/07448481.2021.1979560
- Hoskins, E. J., Sayger, S.A., Westman, J.S. (2002). Quality Improvement in Patient Distribution at a Major University Student Health Center. Journal of American College Health. 2002;50(6):303-308. doi:10.1080/07448480209603449
- Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.). (2000). To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. National Academies Press (US). https://doi.org/10.17226/9728
- Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. (2001). Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. National Academies Press (US). https://doi.org/10.17226/10027
- Langley GL, Moen R, Nolan KM, Nolan TW, Norman CL, Provost LP. (2009). The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance (2nd Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
- Provost, L., Murray, S. K. (2011). The health care data guide: Learning from data for improvement. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
- Deming, E. W. (1982). Out of the Crisis. The MIT Press.
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (n.d.) Model for Improvement. https://www.ihi.org/library/model-for-improvement
- Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. NIST. https://www.nist.gov/baldrige
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2016, May 12). Mike Evans: An Illustrated Look at Quality Improvement in Health Care. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPysNaF1oMw
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