FROM AFMRD: THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR PATIENT SAFETY AND QUALITY (PDPQ) EDUCATORS NETWORK PILOT

Meghan F. Raleigh, MD, FAAFP

I was immediately drawn to the opportunity because I did not have much Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Competencies (QIPS) experience early in my training or career.

As a new program director, the opportunity to have a longitudinal experience where I could learn, share ideas, and network with other PDs on how to develop faculty and engage residents early on in QIPS was appealing.

Once I began participating in the pilot, our program started making changes by creating faculty and resident team leads for each of our outpatient clinic teams to help engage them in the ownership of their clinic teams. The goal was for each of the leads to optimize huddles and interprofessional team communication to discuss any issues related to patient safety. Additionally, the team leads met with clinic and hospital leadership to obtain institution, team, and individual practitioner quality metrics which they can use to develop QI projects that are meaningful to them.

Christine Martino, DO

I was appreciative of the various collaborative relationships that were generated by my involvement in this experience. One of the residents at our program, TaReva Warrick-Stone, DO, also took part in the PDPQ pilot and was instrumental in creating and developing a brand-new curriculum for the residents to learn and better understand the importance of patient safety and quality. Our program plans to roll out the new curriculum this academic year.

The most important thing I learned from my participation in the pilot was that you do not have to wait until you have everything in place before you initiate a new idea or curriculum. Waiting could mean you risk missing out on the enormous potential benefits that may result.

Stephanie Calkins, MD

Developing patient safety conferences for our residents and the teams they work with has been one of my top goals in the past few years. The short sessions with virtual didactic education and opportunity for networking, linked with a program of continuity and “homework” throughout the weeks of the pilot project was very effective for my learning, and for my motivation to make progress in curriculum development and implementation.

Some of the changes developed since participating in this program included regularly scheduled patient safety conferences in our clinics and inpatient service and the expectation of individual resident development of a standard quality improvement project poster presentation by the completion of residency. As an associate director in a community family medicine residency, I was especially grateful for the exposure to national medical education and curriculum specialists. The presentations, resources, and availability outside of the project hours were incredibly helpful and inspiring.

Angela Cherry, MD, MBA

The primary practice site at our program is a rural health clinic. Since I participated in the pilot, residents, in coordination with the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Ambulatory Supervisor, have developed a clinic advisory committee. Residents now attend the health system’s quarterly quality improvement meetings. In addition, there will also be monthly meetings to address patient safety issues that are entered into the event monitoring system relating to residents. Once this committee is fully functioning in the clinic, we plan to increase resident participation in patient safety and quality at the system level first in the ambulatory setting and then hopefully progress to the inpatient setting.

Participants from this pilot hope to continue to share resources and lessons learned with members of the AFMRD community.