Quality Improvement Rotation

The principles of the fellowship are grounded in the Quadruple Aim and include client-centered collaboration, population-based care, treatment to target, evidenced-based care, and accountable care. A novel curriculum is required in order to demonstrate how quality improvement (QI) initiatives can be aligned both with the Quadruple Aim and the precepts of integrated care. QI projects can improve the patient experience, improve population health, and reduce costs. 
 
Many fellows may have had only scant introduction into the science and process of QI. Therefore, the curriculum needs to rapidly provide an introduction to QI, demonstrate how QI processes can be applied to current UW integrated care models, and provide an opportunity for active learning whereby fellows complete a QI project themselves.

Learning Objectives

  • Have a rudimentary knowledge of how QI projects identify goals, track outcomes, and determine whether an intervention was an improvement
  • Be able to distinguish between research projects and QI projects
  • Be able to identify when a QI project needs to first be cleared by the humans subjects IRB
  • Be able to articulate how IT resources, including the electronic medical record, can both create quality issues and be used to address quality issues
  • Understand resources whereby QI projects can be published
  • Be able to critically read the existing scholarly QI literature
  • Have identified a target process that impacts a specific outcome within the UW’s integrated care clinical programs
  • Have identified specific measurements that document the ongoing implementation of the QI intervention and track the desired outcome

Requirements

  • Attendance in three afternoons of didactics
  • Participation in QI project based in the Behavioral Health Integration Program (BHIP) clinics