Medical School

Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QuIPS) provides students with the core principles and skills necessary to understand and analyze the systems-based aspects of patient care, to actively engage in quality improvement work, and to enhance patient safety with the of achieving the best possible health outcomes for patients.

The Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Pathway offers three themes:

1. Learning to optimize systems of care and functions as a member of the healthcare teams
2. Principles of Safety and Medical Error
3. Development of Quality Improvement skills

Objectives

• Understand basic terminology of quality improvement and patient safety
• Understand the basic concepts of systems as they apply to patient care.

1. Understand the basic concepts of process mapping
2. Define safety in systems and human factors science
3. Understand the concept of medical error and the importance of systems versus individual accountability 

• Assess the gap between existing practices and best practices
• Describe the importance of disclosure following adverse events
• Describe the basic principles of quality improvement tools including rapid cycle change, six-sigma and lean
• Participate in a quality improvement project
• Organize and develop a written description of a quality improvement effort in a manner suitable for presentation
• Participate in the management of an adverse event

1. Perform a root cause analysis
2. Demonstrate the importance of disclosure following adverse events

• Evaluate successful and failed PI projects.

Geoff Lamb, MD
QuIPS Pathway Director

Catherine (Cassie) Ferguson, MD QuIPS Pathway Co-Director

QuIPS Pathway Information

QuIPS Pathway Coordinator

Jen Kraus
414-955-2286
jekraus@mcw.edu
 

Additional Resources

Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Academy for Healthcare Improvement (AHI)