TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrating quality improvement and continuing professional development at an academic medical center
T2 - A partnership between practice plan, hospital, and medical school
AU - Gold, Barbara
AU - England, Dawn
AU - Riley, William
AU - Jacobs-Halsey, Ginny
AU - Webb, Corinne
AU - Daniels, Bobbi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, the Association for Hospital Medical Education, and the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Introduction: While quality improvement (QI) initiatives can be a highly effective means for improving health care delivery in academic medical centers (AMCs), many health care professionals are not formally trained in basic QI methodology, engaging clinicians in QI activities can be challenging, and there is often a lack of integration and coordination among QI functions (eg, Departments of Quality and Safety, Continuing Professional Development). In our AMC, we undertook a collaborative approach to achieve better vertical and horizontal integration of our QI education efforts. This article provides a case example describing our organizational context, what was done, and with what effect and makes our example and lessons learned available to others. Methods: We developed a new educational QI program that was jointly planned and implemented by a group comprising major QI stakeholders. This project was intended to create horizontal organizational linkages between continuing professional development, clinicians, the hospital, and QI department and produce QI activities that aligned with the strategic objectives of senior management. Results: The group developed and implemented a curriculum based on Lean methodology and concepts from the Institute for Health Care Improvement Model for Improvement. Two cohorts (27 teams) completed the training and planned and implemented QI projects. All projects were aligned with organizational quality, safety, and patient experience goals. The majority of projects met their aim statements. Discussion: This case description provides an example of successful horizontal integration of an AMCs’ QI functions to disseminate knowledge and implement meaningful QI aligned with strategic objectives (vertical integration).
AB - Introduction: While quality improvement (QI) initiatives can be a highly effective means for improving health care delivery in academic medical centers (AMCs), many health care professionals are not formally trained in basic QI methodology, engaging clinicians in QI activities can be challenging, and there is often a lack of integration and coordination among QI functions (eg, Departments of Quality and Safety, Continuing Professional Development). In our AMC, we undertook a collaborative approach to achieve better vertical and horizontal integration of our QI education efforts. This article provides a case example describing our organizational context, what was done, and with what effect and makes our example and lessons learned available to others. Methods: We developed a new educational QI program that was jointly planned and implemented by a group comprising major QI stakeholders. This project was intended to create horizontal organizational linkages between continuing professional development, clinicians, the hospital, and QI department and produce QI activities that aligned with the strategic objectives of senior management. Results: The group developed and implemented a curriculum based on Lean methodology and concepts from the Institute for Health Care Improvement Model for Improvement. Two cohorts (27 teams) completed the training and planned and implemented QI projects. All projects were aligned with organizational quality, safety, and patient experience goals. The majority of projects met their aim statements. Discussion: This case description provides an example of successful horizontal integration of an AMCs’ QI functions to disseminate knowledge and implement meaningful QI aligned with strategic objectives (vertical integration).
KW - Academic medical center
KW - Clinician training
KW - Collaboration
KW - Continuing professional development
KW - Organization learning and change
KW - Performance improvement
KW - Quality improvement
KW - Quality improvement/six sigma/lean
KW - Strategic
KW - Strategic issues in CME/CPD
KW - Strategic quality initiatives
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85006381039&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85006381039&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000118
DO - 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000118
M3 - Article
C2 - 28350314
AN - SCOPUS:85006381039
SN - 0894-1912
VL - 36
SP - 307
EP - 315
JO - Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions
JF - Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions
IS - 4
ER -