Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Track
Through the RUSH Internal Medicine Residency two year Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Track, participating residents will have special guidance on a specific project of their choosing from mentors who are enthusiastic and who have access to resources, data, and statistical help. The track spans the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years of residency.
During the first (PGY-2) year of the track, residents (usually working in pairs) will develop and implement a QI project under faculty supervision. We’ll review how to identify problems, how to do a root cause analysis, and how create an impactful intervention. Projects will be designed to directly improve patient care, satisfy the residency program requirement for scholarship, and ideally lead to nationally presented abstracts and publication in peer reviewed journals.
In the second (PGY-3) year of the track, residents will participate in a “Safety Rotation” where they will have the opportunity to work alongside hospital patient safety leadership (while also having time to finish up your project), gain deeper insight into hospital operations, and participate in hospital-level event review processes. This will allow you to gain first-hand experience seeing and understanding the broader organizational efforts to improve safety and quality on a global level.
This track is an ideal adjunct to the core of internal medicine training for any residents interested in academic hospital medicine, hospital administration, quality and safety, healthcare business analytics, or even any subspecialty fellowship.
Quality improvement driven by residents
So far, our track residents have been involved in number of QI projects on various subjects, including:
- Transfusion reduction and blood utilization optimization
- Reduction of telemetry usage on GMF
- Improving AAA screening in outpatient clinics
- Reduction of TTE orders during the workup of syncope
- Optimization of oxygen utilization on GMF
- Antibiotic time-out/antibiotic stewardship
- Reducing unnecessary Flu/RPP testing
- Improving AVS discharge communication
- Improving feedback on GMF
- Reducing unnecessary testing in pre-op clinic
- Improving colorectal cancer screening in RUI clinics
- Improving nightfloat handoff process
- Reducing unnecessary ICU admissions
- Improving outpatient continuity in resident clinic
- Creating a post-code debrief culture
- Reducing daily blood draws on GMF
- Optimizing the management of hyperglycemia on GMF
- Improving resident understanding of post-acute care placement options
Many of these projects have resulted in significant cost savings, improvements in patient safety/flow, and also have been presented in local/regional forums, as well as at national conferences.