Spreading Quality Improvement
Spreading quality improvement through support for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open School for Health Professions
Field of Work: teaching health care employees about improvement in quality and patient safety
Problem Synopsis: Health care employees are often ill prepared to participate in or lead improvement efforts in quality and patient safety. Health care executives and clinical leaders often have to retrain them and overcome their resistance to change
Synopsis of the Work: From 2009 to 2010, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)—a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Mass., that works with health professionals worldwide—expanded and enhanced its Open School for Health Professions.
Key Results: The IHI Open School developed seven courses in patient safety and quality improvement and leadership. Some 25,519 people, including 16,764 students, had completed one or more courses, and more than 50 graduate-level programs had integrated them into their curricula, as of March 2011.
Project staff also fostered a health care improvement network composed of local chapters of the Open School and its students, faculty and mentors. The number of chapters grew from 140 to 293 in 45 states and 38 countries as of March 2011.
Recommended Reading
- A Multi-Institutional Quality Improvement Initiative to Transform Education for Chronic Illness Care in Resident Continuity Practices
- Achieving Competence Today (ACT) Collaborative: Disseminating an Action-Based Inter-Professional Curriculum that Incorporates Quality Improvement
- Evaluation of Achieving Competence Today (ACT)