TY - JOUR T1 - Quality Management in Respiratory Care: PDCA ≠ PDSA JF - Respiratory Care SP - 778 LP - 779 DO - 10.4187/respcare.09981 VL - 67 IS - 6 AU - Robert A Brown Y1 - 2022/06/01 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/67/6/778.abstract N2 - To the Editor,I read with interest the review published by Karthika et al1 that addressed some potential key components of quality management in respiratory care. I applaud the authors on their concise descriptions of select methods to assist the reader to develop, assess, and implement quality-focused methods for their department. However, the authors seem to confuse an important issue when they equate the equivalency between the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle with that of the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, “. . . the plan-do-check-act cycle, sometimes known as the plan-do-study-act cycle.” There are fundamental differences in the content, intent, and implementation of the PDCA and PDSA cycles.As background, historically in the United States health care arena, the quality-impr-ovement (QI) interest began in earnest in the late 1980s to early 1990s, primarily utilizing the Deming Management Method (DMM).2 The DMM was developed and initiated for the rebuilding of Japan after World War II. In essence, this method incorporated the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle to assure the quality of processes in manufacturing.By its design, mainly as a top-down approach, DMM assumes that the initial plan (P), to be implemented, … Correspondence: Robert A Brown RRT RPFT FAARC. E-mail: rabrown512{at}hotmail.com. ER -