What are the stages of a Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement (QA/QI) cycle?

• A. Plan, Do, Check, Act
• B. Plan, Do, Study, Act
• C. Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve
• D. Assess, Plan, Execute, Review

Answer: (B)

QA/QI cycles are about turning ideas into tested changes and learning from the results. In this approach you start by Planning: define the goal, specify the change you want to test, and decide how you’ll measure success. Then you Do the change on a small scale to see how it works in real practice. After that you Study the data: analyze what happened, compare outcomes to predictions, and pull insights about why results occurred. Finally you Act on what you’ve learned, which means adopting the change, refining it, or discarding it, and then you start the cycle again with a new improvement idea. This emphasis on learning from data before expanding gives QA/QI its iterative, evidence-based nature. The other sequences differ in terminology or focus—for example, Check emphasizes verification without the same learning emphasis, while Define/Measure/Analyze/Improve or Assess/Plan/Execute/Review don’t align as clearly with the rapid, learning-driven loop used in QA/QI practice.