NAHQ CPHQ Practice Exam

The quality improvement tool that involves mapping out a process to identify potential areas for improvement is a flowchart. Flowcharts visually represent the sequence of steps within a process, allowing individuals to see the overall flow, understand how various components interact, and pinpoint specific areas where improvements can be made. By clearly illustrating steps, decision points, and potential bottlenecks, flowcharts help teams analyze processes more effectively, enabling them to identify inefficiencies and opportunities for enhancement.

In contrast, a cause-and-effect diagram primarily focuses on identifying root causes of specific problems rather than mapping the entire process. A histogram is used to display frequency data and understand distributions, while a run chart visualizes data points over a period, helping to track performance trends but not the process flow itself. Each of those tools serves different purposes in quality improvement but does not directly map processes like a flowchart does.