Breaking the Rules for Better Care (IHI resource guide, October 2023)

Summary

“Breaking the Rules for Better Care” was developed and initiated by the US-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Leadership Alliance in 2016 as a way to identify health care “rules” that get in the way of the care experience. They recognised that as healthcare leaders they aim to provide positive experiences for patients, families, and staff. However, sometimes they may inadvertently create processes or policies that have an unintended impact on the people they work to serve and support.

In 2017, 10 members of the IHI Health Improvement Alliance Europe (HIAE) conducted their own “Breaking the Rules for Better Care” week, amassing 500 proposed rules by means of feedback boxes in cafeterias, postcards, stickers, comment boards, and staff brainstorming sessions. One organisation even ran an underground “guerrilla campaign,” covering its hallways and doorways with red masking tape to illustrate “breaking the rules” in action. To view the existing system with a new lens, organisations from these two IHI networks have been asking: If you could break or change one rule in service of a better care experience for patients or staff, what would it be and why?

This is a resource pack to help others undertake a similar "breaking the rules for better care" campaign.