Developing our Emerging Workforce in Quality Improvement

The good folks at the American Journal of Medical Quality just published  our paper, "Improving pediatric health-care delivery by engaging residents in team-based quality-improvement projects".

For the past 4 years, pediatricians-in-training  and faculty physicians at the University of California Davis Health System have been working in interprofessional teams on quality improvement projects. Their work not only educates them on quality improvement principles, but also improves patient care.

Our educational program includes training on key quality improvement concepts, working in interprofessional teams, faculty and peer mentoring, selecting topics aligned with organizational priorities, designing and implementing quality improvement projects, and presenting projects to peers and leadership.

Here is a sample of what our trainees have accomplished: reducing wait time for language interpretation services in the pediatric clinic, increasing implementation of the vitamin D recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, improving screening of new mothers for postpartum depression, increasing the number of children with asthma who receive home-management care plans at hospital discharge, increasing pediatric developmental screening, and improving patient flow in the pediatric clinic by reducing lead time (total length of time spent by patients in the clinic).

- Ulfat Shaikh