Teaching quality improvement: a collaboration project between medicine and engineering.
Systems failures and their impact on quality and cost have fueled the need for a paradigm shift in medical education. Despite a growing interest in health care quality improvement (QI), few physician educators possess the necessary expertise in either systems engineering or QI. In this article, we describe a novel teaching partnership between engineers and physicians in implementing a 3-week elective QI training curriculum on health care QI. Nine learners, 2 preventive medicine and 7 endocrinology fellows, participated in this rotation. Key concepts taught by the 4 engineering faculty include stake-holder analysis, root cause analysis, process mapping, failure mode and effects analysis, resource management, negotiation, and leadership. Learner scores on the QI knowledge application tool improved significantly (P < .004) from 7.33 prerotation to 11.89 postrotation. Further research is necessary to study the effectiveness, efficacy, and scope of using engineering expertise in QI education initiatives.
Varkey
Prathibha
P
Division of Preventive Occupational and Aerospace Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. Varkey.prathibha@mayo.edu
Karlapudi
Sudhakar P
SP
Bennet
Kevin E
KE
D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D016730:Program Development; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D017749:Total Quality Management