LI Course
CE Hours: 3 contact hours

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this course is to teach public health professionals how to merge quality management theory and clinical practice in different health care environments, from acute in-patient hospital care to community-based ambulatory care. With over 25 years of experience successfully implementing quality management methods into a large and diverse health care system, and having educated thousands of practitioners, clinicians, and administrators in how to use quality management as a proactive approach to improving the delivery of care we are able to highlight critical issues that benefit from education. Although many public health professionals have an understanding of statistics and best practices, they are not always able to integrate performance improvement methodology into practice for improved outcomes and increased patient safety. This course will inform participants about the role of quality management theory, tools, and philosophy in standardizing care in today’s complex healthcare environment. Most important is to educate participants about the relationship between process and outcomes, especially within a defined patient population, and use measurements to leverage this understanding to implement a methodology of improvement, the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Methodology. Especially relevant to the management of chronic diseases, such as heart failure, diabetes, and asthma, an understanding of indicator development, risk-adjustment, interpretation of control charts and other statistical tools, will enable participants to monitor change and improvements and ensure the stability of optimal processes. Participants will be able to interpret and address variations in processes of care and interpret statistical and clinical improvements between pre and post-intervention studies. The sessions, taught by experienced quality management experts, will be guided by lectures, but mainly be driven by group exercises that will allow participants to implement PDCA methodology, create indicators, and discuss real anonymous case studies.

Session Objectives: By the end of the learning institute, participants will be able to: 1) Identify the critical difference between compliance and proactive approaches to improving quality; 2) Explain the relationship between process and outcomes which underpins quality management in the healthcare environment; 3) Implement PDCA methodology to improve processes to make an impact on outcomes of care; 4) Capture processes through indicator development and analyze indicator data for variations in care through control charting; 5) Understand interpretation of outcomes of care through risk adjusted data

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)