Quality Academy

two Quality Academy participants discussing a presentation

Together with Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, the Department sponsors Quality Academy, a year-long course designed to teach quality improvement (QI) principles and science among provider, nursing, staff and administrative leaders throughout VUMC through project-focused and didactic learning. Participants envision, create and lead a team to complete a robust QI project focused on improving one or more of the following:

  • Patient outcomes
  • Hospital or departmental goals
  • Value by reducing waste
  • Efficiency
  • USNWR reporting
 

People at a Workshop

Through interactive sessions, learners become familiar with the Model for Improvement and use tools such as process mapping, key driver diagrams, and run and control charts to more effectively drive change. Each participant has a mentor who has previously graduated from Quality Academy. Graduates have published their works and presented at national meetings, and the Department specifically recognizes quality improvement work among its promotion criteria.

 

  • Debra K. Braun-Courville, MD

    "Quality Academy was a great learning experience and has without a doubt helped in my every day practice of Adolescent Medicine. Since I am not a researcher, it has provided me with a well-organized introduction to the study of quality improvement from an academic and scientific perspective. It has encouraged me to evaluate systems, processes, and how to improve health care delivery for the individual patient and the overall adolescent/young adult population. The program encourages active learning. Each participant is required to develop a tangible, accessible and meaningful individualized project to help them understand and acquire the necessary skills involved in quality improvement. My patients have benefited immensely from this course; thanks to my project we are now able to provide in-clinic phlebotomy services during regular clinic hours. Mentorship is key, and I now feel that I have a several academic mentors from a variety of disciplines within the Children’s Hospital who I can lean on for support and guidance as I work on more divisional quality improvement projects."
    - Debra K. Braun-Courville, MD

     

    Rebekah F. Brown, MD

    "Being part of the Quality Academy enhanced my knowledge in the quality improvement process. I learned how to track outcomes of the cystic fibrosis team's QI work in a measurable way, and the class connected me to a network of QI minded Vanderbilt colleagues which I can use as resources when questions arise in the development of QI projects. The outcomes for our pediatric CF patients have continued to improve through these targeted QI interventions."
    - Rebekah F. Brown, MD

     

    Paul B. Dressler, MD

    "My participation in the Quality Academy helped develop my skills in identifying areas of inefficiency in our scheduling process and how to improve this process. The changes made in our process increased our utilization rate, allowing for more patients to be seen sooner in our high-demand clinic."
    - Paul B. Dressler, MD

Quality Academic Community

Faculty Lead: David Johnson, MD

The Quality Academic Community will equip Vanderbilt Pediatrics Residents and Fellows with the knowledge and tools to develop and lead quality improvement projects during their training and future careers through a longitudinal curriculum that ushers each participant through their own QI project.

Goals

  1. Differentiate between QI and research
  2. Design, develop, and lead systems-based QI projects with a team using the Model for Improvement as your framework
  3. Demonstrate use of fundamental QI tools in appropriate situations 
  4. Collect, display, and analyze data using statistical process control (SPC)
  5. Understand how to evaluate QI literature
  6. Demonstrate peer teaching of QI methods
  7. Presentation of project as poster or platform at local (including Vanderbilt Pediatrics Research retreat) or national meeting

Requirements

  1. Design and lead a QI project with a team. This will include:
    a.  Frequent data collection and plotting on a run/control chart (this will require access to a computer with Microsoft Excel) 
    b.  Utilizing fundamental skills learned during sessions to gain knowledge from your data over time
    c.  Develop small tests of change based on theories learned from data collection and analysis
    d.  Engaging team members in the process 
  2. Identify a faculty sponsor who can help oversee any changes occurring in the area where changes will be taking place
  3. Monthly one hour sessions with the community to learn from other members' projects and learn new QI skills 
  4. Frequent (approximately every other month) 5 minute presentations of your own project to receive feedback from the group
  5. Online posting of different components of your own project (such as a key driver) between classes with the expectation that members provide meaningful feedback via the web
  6. Required Reading including:
    a.  The Improvement Guide by Langley et al.
    b.  Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by Wheeler
    c.  Other relevant articles as needed 
  7. Members of the community in their 2nd and 3rd years will be developing and presenting didactics of QI skills/concepts to new members
  8. Presentation of your QI project at a regional or national meeting
  9. Submit your project to the Department MOC Portfolio to gain ABP MOC part IV credit for yourself and other pediatricians on your team