Analysis of the quarterly quality improvement reports submitted by departments and teams at the University of New Mexico Hospital identified several common pitfalls: monitoring someone else's performance, choosing irrelevant or meaningless indicators, working with inadequate samples, changing measurement techniques or indicators too frequently, taking ineffective actions, and jumping to solutions. To overcome these pitfalls, managers and team leaders can use tools such as indicator worksheets, data collection plans, report forms, team-tracking mechanisms, and comprehensive guidelines as their guides through the quality improvement process.