Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) Curriculum

The QIPS Track

Tuesday QIPS Intern School

The Chief Residents of Quality and Safety lead a Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) curriculum for all interns. The small-group, interactive sessions occur every Tuesday of plus one week longitudinally throughout intern year. The goals of this curriculum are to develop clinical leaders who promote a culture of safety, recognize systemic vulnerabilities, and gain the skills to improve quality of care. Our current intern curriculum covers the following foundational topics:

• Introduction to QIPS
• Team Communication & Incident Reporting
• Mock Root Cause Analysis
• Just Culture
• Improvement Science
• Basic Statistical Process Control
• QI Project Simulation
   

QIPS Elective

For more advanced skills in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, residents apply to a year-long elective (one half-day during each ambulatory week) that occurs during the second year. Highlights of the elective include:

• Patient Safety Conference: Residents conduct a root cause analysis of a real patient safety event and present it to an active audience of stakeholders and colleagues.
• Resident Research & Quality Improvement (RRQI) Day Poster: Residents present their scholarly output at the annual Dr. Arti Rupani Garg Resident Research & Quality Improvement Day at Loyola University Medical Center.
• Quality Improvement Training: Residents complete module courses through the American Medical Association focused on Quality and Safety.
• Six Sigma Yellow Belt Training & Certification: Residents have the opportunity to earn a Yellow Belt certification through the completion of online and in-person training modules that build on foundational Quality and Safety skills. 
• Self-Audit: Residents perform a self-audit of their own patient outcomes as a formal method of continued reflection with the goal of achieving individual practice changes and improved patient outcomes.
• Dedicated mentorship and professional development: Residents receive mentorship from a Chief Resident of Quality and Safety and an Assistant Program Director to translate personal interests into meaningful scholarly output and the creation of a robust professional network.

QI Scholar Program

Residents may apply for up to 6 weeks of dedicated reasearch time in an academic year to work on an independent quality improvement project with a dedicated faculty mentor.

Residents receive formal LEAN training taught by an experienced Systems Redesign Program Manager at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital. With completion of LEAN, residents earn a LEAN Yellow Belt Certificate.

QI scholars also submit their findings to either the High Value Practice Academic Alliance (HVPPA) national conference or another national conference of their choosing.

Applications for the QI Scholar program are held during the spring of each academic year.

QI Projects & Conference Submissions

Our residents have instigated valuable change at Loyola and Hines by participating in and even starting their own quality improvement projects. Below is just a sampling of the quality improvement projects our residents are involved in. Many have submitted their findings to local, regional and national conferences.

Recent Projects

• Improving Goals of Care Conversations and Life-Sustaining Treatment Note Completion with High-Risk Patients in VA Resident Clinics 
• Improving Cardiovascular Risk Assessment for Patients with CLL and Other B Cell Lymphomas Initiating BTK Inhibitors
• Substance Use Disorder: A QI Project to Improve Cessation Pharmacotherapy
• A Reassessment of the Loyola University Medical Center Meds to Beds Program 
• Implementing an Aspiration Precautions Order Set to Reduce In-Hospital Aspiration Events
• Improving Parenteral Nutrition Implementation in Critically Ill Malnourished Patients 
• Data to Better Understand the Whole Picture: Hospital Length of Stay and Its Association with Readmission, Beyond Bedside Medication Delivery
• Advanced Care Planning in the CCU: Implementing an Intervention 
• Impact of Outpatient Palliative Care Consultation Triggers on End-of-Life Outcomes in Hines VA Hematology/Oncology Clinic  
   

Recent Conference Submissions

• American College of Gastroenterology
• American College of Physicians - Illinois Chapter
• Association of VA Hematology/Oncology (AVAHO)
• High Value Practice Academic Alliance (HVPAA)
• American Thoracic Society (ATS)
• Loyola Resident Research & Quality Improvement Day

Past Projects

• Improving Safety during Intra-Hospital Transfer of MICU Patients at LUMC
• Increasing Patient Understanding of Hospital Stay in Cirrhotics
• Hypothermia Protocol at Hines VA
• Phenobarbital for Alcohol Withdrawal
• Improving PFT Reads per ATS Guidelines
• Re-evaluating the Use of Contact Precautions in MRSA and VRE
• Improving Discharge Process in COPD Patients
• De-escalation of Antibiotics in Neutropenic Fever
• Get With the Guidelines Heart Failure Protocols
• Improving Hypertension Control in Hines Primary Care Clinics with M.A.P System
• The Identification of Patient and Process Characteristics Associated with 30-day Heart Failure Readmissions at an Academic Center
• Hines EKG Notification Protocol
• ARC/ACC Diagnostic Imaging Clinical Decision Support System & Redesign
• Small-Bore Feeding Tube Task Force
• Implementation of a Discharge Summary Template to Improve Provider Documentation
• Hines Hem/Onc Service Discharge Process Redesign
• Effect of Patient Boarding on Unit vs Off Unit for Medical ICU Patients

Testimonials

"My mom worked in QI for a hospital system growing up, so I always knew of the term and had a general idea of the goals of QI. I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into my medical career, but coming into residency I wasn’t sure how to do that. The QIPS education built into our first-year curriculum helped me to build foundational knowledge, while the elective my second year helped me to apply QIPS my own patients. These experiences gave me the confidence to create a project centered around my specific career interests in palliative care and ideas for future projects as I go off to fellowship and eventually become an attending. I feel much more confident in how I want to approach and involve QI in my career after these 3 years involved in the QIPS program."

-    Kirsten McAuliff, Class of 2026

"The QIPS elective and dedicated scholar track were excellent experiences that enriched residency by allowing exploration of the "how" and "why" behind the operations of the hospital. Learning at this systems focused level encouraged me to pursue my own investigation of processes that I felt could be improved to directly benefit patient care. I would recommend this experience to anyone who would like to learn more about the environment that shapes both our residency training and a patient's experience in the hospital." 

-    Alex O’Hara, PGY-3 QI Scholar 2026

“Having earned my MBA in Healthcare Leadership in medical school, I developed a taste for QI early in my medical training. The QIPS elective allowed me a chance to further my understanding of Quality Improvement & Patient Safety topics and their applications in a real-world context. Additionally, it offered a structured space in which to forge connections and relations with other members of the healthcare team striving for the same QI/PS goals. It was through these connections that I was able to develop a resident-led QI project regarding Heart Failure readmissions which was within a much larger institutional initiative aimed at reducing readmission rates at the VA. It is due to the QI Scholar track that I will be able to spend dedicated time completing this project.”

- Cat Sawalski, DO (Class of 2024)

“The QIPS elective helped me gain a better understanding of how to systematically analyze problems at their core to attempt to address them. The elective enabled me to learn the tools to create systemic changes allowing me to help provide improved patient care even for patients I had never directly managed. It also gave me the confidence to help mentor others to identify and analyze problems so they too can help address safety issues they identify.”

- Ben Follman, MD (Class of 2024)

"The QIPS elective was a great experience because it allowed me to develop a better understanding of how to improve patient care by identifying and working to fix system errors that can lead to patient harm. After completing the elective, I feel better prepared to provide safe, high-quality care to my patients."

- Michael Fayad, DO (Class of 2023)

"Finding ways to feel connected has been one of my saving graces when it comes to maintaining resiliency in residency. The QIPS elective has been one of my favorite ways to do this. It provides real-time, meaningful avenues to further my QI knowledge while thinking critically about ways to deliver safer patient care."

- Andrea Grillini, MD (Chief Resident in Quality and Safety)

"The QIPS experience provided me the knowledge and experience to identify issues regarding quality and safety affecting patient care along with the tools to address them. This allowed for a unique, well-rounded experience as a growing physician, being involved in the bedside interactions with patients while participating in the background machinations of the system that cares for them."

- Gabe Matias, MD (Class of 2023)