Explain the difference between internal and external evidence. How can each of these types of evidence be utilized for quality improvement in the clinical setting?

Internal evidence is information or data that is collected within an organization and can be used to evaluate performance, identify opportunities for improvement and assess progress of a quality improvement project. Examples of internal evidence include patient outcomes, safety incident reports, patient satisfaction surveys and financial or operational metrics. Internal evidence is often gathered from staff interviews or focus groups.

External evidence is information that has been collected outside the organization through research studies or published literature reviews. This type of evidence provides valuable insights into current practices in other organizations and may help inform decision-making around planning new initiatives, policies or procedures. External sources such as professional guidelines provide objective benchmarks against which care quality can be assessed across different clinical settings.

Both internal and external evidence are essential when assessing quality improvement initiatives in the clinical setting. Internal data helps clinicians measure performance against established targets while external sources allow them to compare against best practices in their specialty area as well as benchmarking with other organizations. Utilizing both types of data allows healthcare providers to gain a comprehensive view on how their services meet the needs of their patients compared to comparison sites nationally/internationally as well as assess changes over time related to policy implementation or process improvements made internally at their own facility.