1. Strategies & Opportunities
Insert Title of CQI Project
Primary Drivers
Secondary Drivers
Strategies & Opportunities
Global Aim:
Specific Aim: … ….
Primary Driver 1…
Measures: …. ……
…..
Primary Driver 2…

2. How to Complete the Driver Diagram Instructions adapted from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
What is a driver diagram? A driver diagram will help you identify where your improvement effort should start. It is a tool to help organize your ideas and discover various causes that contribute to the issue you are trying to improve. More specifically, the diagram breaks down the aim of your project into primary and secondary drivers, and helps you determine what changes to make, how to prioritize and projections for resource needs. The diagram is also an excellent visual framework for explaining a quality improvement initiative to your team. What is a global aim? The global aim captures the overall desired state and does not necessarily pinpoint the timeframe and exact outcome. What is a specific aim? The specific aim outlines what must be done to reach the global aim and includes the details of by when and how well. This often includes a target outcome in the form of a value or a percentage and will call out when the achievement must be reached by, for instance Fall of What is a primary driver? Primary drivers are factors that are part of your system that directly impact your outcome, or aim, of your project. For example, one primary driver of a quality improvement project on improving hand hygiene is provider behavior. In other words, getting providers to adopt hand hygiene practices directly affects the compliance level within the unit or hospital. Another example: If we’re looking to decrease childhood obesity rates in your community, one primary driver is the immediate availability of fatty foods and their accessibility in the community.

3. How to Complete the Driver Diagram – Continued… Instructions adapted from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
How do you identify drivers? At times, it can be difficult to identify contributing factors. If someone says “the environment” influences a process, what exactly does that mean? What’s part of the environment? This list will help guide you as you determine the primary drivers for your quality improvement project:
Equipment and Materials(supply, design, availability, and maintenance)
Methods (steps in care process and steps in supply chain)
Environment (staffing levels and skills, workload and shift patterns, administrative and managerial support, and physical plant)
People (staff knowledge and skills/training, competence, patient behavior, and supervision
What is a secondary driver? Secondary drivers are directly related to your primary drivers. They are the activities that, if improved upon, directly impact the primary driver of your aim. In quality improvement, they represent the opportunities for change. For example, if you educate providers about the dangers of not washing their hands (secondary driver), it can change their behavior (primary driver), and will improve your aim.
Should all key driver diagrams look the same? Key driver diagrams, as you can probably imagine, are not all the same. If your driver diagram looks much different from another within a different QI project on your campus, don’t fret. Because they are based on the ideas and discussions specific to your team, no two key driver diagrams are alike. Remember, they are simply tools to help you identify potential changes.
How do key driver diagrams relate to measures? Drivers – both primary and secondary – can turn into measures. Primary drivers often become outcome measures and second drivers often become process measures.