Review and Application of the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence Guidelines in Korea

Abstract

Globally, quality improvement (QI) activities are conducted in most health care institutions; however, results of QI activities are shared and communicated rather informally and often only among frontline practitioners. Unless QI activities, a cumulative experiential learning process in each healthcare institution, are shared widely through academic publication, scientific understanding in the QI field will remain a challenge. It was against this backdrop that in 2008 the Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) 1.0 was developed as a guideline for converting cases of QI activities to academic publications. Modifications and further developments in subsequent years led to a revised SQUIRE 2.0 in 2015. This review provides an overview of the development process of the SQUIRE 2.0 and the 18 major items, along with relevant examples for more concrete understanding. The SQUIRE 2.0 highlights the three basic elements involved in systematic efforts to improve quality of care, patient safety, and value: why a certain QI activity was conducted, what was found, and what was learned from it. The SQUIRE 2.0 is a guideline for reporting diverse methods used in QI activities that can be complex and multidimensional. Given that a large number of QI activities are reported in Korea each year in academic conferences, held by the Korean Society for Quality in Health Care and other professional societies, it is our hope that, by introducing the SQUIRE 2.0, this review can serve as a catalyst for converting QI activities to research studies and thereby for disseminating results of QI activities to a wider audience.