The influence of continuous improvement and clinical practice on emergency department (ED) operational performance.

Purpose: The study tests the relationships between continuous improvement (CI) and clinical practices (CP) with perceived operational performance in Australian and New Zealand (NZ) emergency departments.

Design/methodology/approach: A survey instrument was designed to collect data from Australian and NZ Emergency Department physicians to test a model developed from the literature, the continuous improvement and clinical practice (CICP) model. Hypotheses were developed and tested using bivariate correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis.