Quality and Safety

ELEC 436 / PHSP 667

Department
Health Sciences Education and Pathology

Clinical or Non-Clinical Course
Non-Clinical

Physician Assessed Patient Facing
No

Prerequisites
Completion of IHI Open School QI and PS Modules

Other

Goal

Health care systems is one of the five themes that is embedded longitudinally throughout the Illinois College of Medicine Curriculum. The primary goal of this elective is to provide applied learning opportunities for the content of quality improvement and patient safety in healthcare settings. During this 4-week elective, students will work with various members of quality and safety teams of local healthcare systems. They will participate in several activities which can include:
• Serving as a member of a quality improvement project team (roles can include data gathering and management, planning meetings, analysis of data, interviews, and education of stakeholders.
• Observing leadership level meetings related to quality and safety reporting and strategic planning.
• Participating in a peer review meeting or Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of a critical event.
• Participating in either Lean or Six Sigma approaches to healthcare improvement when logistically possible
• Participate in dedicated case-based discussions with a director or facilitator about quality and safety topics.
o Overview of why QI is important and how to do QI
o Patient Safety: addressing adverse events and event reporting
o Systems of care approaches to QI and Safety
o Debriefing and self-directed learning topic

Objectives

At the end of this rotation, the student will be able to:

  1. Describe how promoting quality improvement and patient safety may achieve better patient outcomes.
  2. Describe how promoting a culture of safety and learning systems can achieve safety.
  3. Participate in developing and measuring an improvement plan around a selected quality indicator.
  4. Participate in applying different evidence-based quality improvement methodologies to adapt to different quality opportunities.
  5. Describe Just Culture and participate in system activities that address safety reporting such as peer reviews and RCAs.

Method of Assessment

Standard Non-clinical Evaluation - Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Additional Methods

Reflective paper – standardized prompts will be provided to the students to serve as template for reflection.

Course Director

Mary Stapel, M.D., Teresa Lynch, M.D.

Course Coordinator

Stephanie Thomas
smaho3@uic.edu
309-680-8641

Location
OSF Healthcare or Carle Health Methodist Hospital

Setting
Neither Outpatient nor Inpatient

Night Call
No

Laboratory
No

Weekends
No

House Staff
No

Number of Learners per Block
1

Duration
4 weeks

Who is this elective available to
Both M3s and M4s

Blocks Available
All except Blocks 8 and 10