Introduction to Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

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Department	Medicine
Course Number	MED 102
Course Title	Introduction to Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
Course Director	Courtney Paul, MD
Length (Weeks)	2
When Offered	All year
Prerequisites	None
Availability Notes	Open to third and fourth year medical students.
Contact Name	Dr. Paul
Contact Phone
Contact Fax
Contact Email	cpaul@mfa.gwu.edu
Other Contacts
Location	Online modules at Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Limit	None
Report
Evaluation	Pass every quiz within each module (approximately 48 mini-quizzes, 3 within each of 16 modules). Your basic certificate should be completed and emailed to cpaul@mfa.gwu.edu by 5pm on the final Friday of the two week enrollment period. As this is self-paced with more than adequate time to complete this certificate, there will be no exceptions to this deadline. See additional details below.
Description	Purpose and Rationale for the Course: The purpose is to provide students with a basic understanding of quality improvement and high value care concepts and techniques. Increasingly health care delivery organizations are required to meet certain quality measures. This course will give students the ability to understand the process for health care quality improvement. Course Learning Objectives: By the end of this course, the student should be able to: Identify common principles and techniques of quality improvement (QI) and patient safety, including the model for improvement, the PDSA (plan-do-study-act) cycle, root cause analysis, QI research, human factors engineering and process mapping. Course Description: This is an online course made up of 16 progressive modules. This course uses curricula developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Students will register at www.ihi.org. The modules provide students with background information and strategies for how to incorporate quality improvement techniques and improve patient safety. Students will complete the 16 required modules and associated quizzes, requiring a passing grade on each to obtain the IHI Basic Certificate. The modules are self-contained; they include readings, videos, interactive discussions, and case applications. Each module takes up to 2 hours to complete. Evaluation: All modules and evaluations must be completed by 5pm on the final Friday of the two week enrollment period. By this time, please email Dr. Paul the Basic Certificate and the individual certificates of the additional online modules. Dr. Paul will email the registrar by the following Friday a pass/fail grade. The student will only be notified directly if the student has failed the course, otherwise a grade of pass will be assumed. Any late or incomplete submissions will result in a grade of fail.
Additional Notes	Modules in these general content areas: (See course director's instructions for specific requirements) Improvement Capability Leadership Patient Safety Person- and Family-Centered Care Quality Cost and Value Add/Drop Procedures: Adding or dropping this course does NOT require course director approval as long as students do so by noon one week before a new two week course period begins.