SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Beyond Checking the Pdsa Box: Creating a Quality Improvement Curriculum That Links Acgme Requirements With Insitutional Goals

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This document describes a longitudinal quality improvement (QI) curriculum designed for internal medicine residents to go beyond simply meeting PDSA requirements and instead produce meaningful, institutionally relevant change. The program addresses common barriers to resident participation in ambitious QI work, such as limited faculty QI expertise, busy training schedules, and the shift to a 6+2 ambulatory block format.<br /><br />In the curriculum, teams of 3–4 PGY2 residents use their protected ambulatory “2” blocks to work on preselected projects aligned with hospital quality and safety priorities. Each team is supported by two faculty mentors, QI analysts, and “super mentors” who provide structured didactics on core QI topics, including the Model for Improvement, measurement, defining metrics, problem solving and publication, and run charts. While faculty guide and support the process, residents lead the project work, including baseline assessment, data analysis, process mapping, intervention design, and evaluation.<br /><br />The program is intended to achieve three main goals: build residents’ QI knowledge and confidence, develop faculty capable of leading future projects independently, and align resident work with institutional priorities that require multidisciplinary collaboration. The results suggest this model has helped create routine access to data support, analytics, and health IT resources, while also producing measurable improvements in care delivery and reportable outcome metrics.<br /><br />Examples of projects from 2017–2022 include improving colon cancer screening, reducing C. difficile infections, improving mortality and readmissions, decreasing VTE rates, strengthening sepsis compliance, improving opioid prescribing, enhancing transitions of care, supporting antibiotic stewardship, addressing food insecurity, and reducing burnout. These projects led to interventions such as new order sets, standardized workflows, education, and protocol changes.<br /><br />Overall, the curriculum appears to foster resident scholarship, faculty development, and meaningful system-level improvement.

Asset Subtitle

Alexandra Gottdiener

Meta Tag

Author List Alexandra Gottdiener, Dipal R. Patel, Karlene Williams, Tanganyika Barnes

Category Innovations

Concept Quality Improvement

Concept Model for Improvement

Concept PDSA Cycle

Concept Quality Improvement Project

Concept Quality-of-Care Data

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization Englewood Health

Presenting Author Alexandra Gottdiener

Track Education

Keywords

quality improvement

internal medicine residents

PDSA

resident curriculum

faculty mentorship

ambulatory block

hospital quality and safety

process improvement

clinical outcomes

institutional priorities

Quality Improvement

Model for Improvement

PDSA Cycle

Quality Improvement Project

Quality-of-Care Data