OTD 8215: Quality Improvement Through Translational Practices
Course Description
This course will introduce learners to concepts in quality improvement and the current healthcare environment that is creating a culture of quality and value-based purchasing. Learners will understand the components of a quality indicator, including both process and outcome indicators. Learners will reflect on how health care generally, and their own practice specifically, can benefit from defining and monitoring quality. The course will also consider how to develop and validate quality indicators and implement quality improvement projects, exploring the connection with evidence-based practice. Learners will learn how to track and monitor quality improvement projects.
Course Objectives
By participating in this course, learners will be able to:
- Examine the relationship between evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and translation science.
- Justify the importance of quality improvement for the future of occupational therapy practice.
- Describe the components of a quality indicator and discuss the steps in development and validation.
- Design a quality improvement project in response to an identified clinical issue.
- Describe the steps in monitoring and tracking the success of a quality improvement project.
Course Schedule
Weekly Learning Objectives
Week i: Introduction to quality in health care
- Overview of the course syllabus
- Assignments and expectations
- Watch the videos by Nancy Flinn as she discusses quality improvement
- Introductions to class members and roles in quality improvement
Week 1: Identifying your own views of health care quality
- Describe your view quality of care
- Discuss the nature of quality of care as it relates to occupational therapy practice
- Describe your own experience with measuring health care quality
Week 2: Why measure quality in post-acute care?
- Guest lecturer – Barbara Gage, PhD
- Discuss the importance of understanding quality in terms of health care access and outcomes
- Describe the role of the ACA in advancing health care quality, access and outcomes.
Week 3: Overview of quality requirements in post-acute care
- Guest lecturer – Barbara Gage, PhD
- Describe the existing programs for providers to be licensed as meeting minimum quality standards
- Understand the role of major organisations on the quality landscape including, JCAHO, AHRQ, and NQF
- Explore the different kinds of quality indicators available, identify ones relevant for post-acute care generally and occupational therapy specifically
- Identify measures that would be helpful to OT if they were developed
Week 4: Understanding the current quality environment in post-acute care
- Guest lecturer – Barbara Gage, PhD
- Describe some of the quality measures on which facilities currently report
- Discuss how public reporting can help foster quality improvement
- Evaluate the impact of recent legislation on future quality reporting
Weeks 5 & 6: Quality Indicators: Development and Validation
- Review the principles of evidence-based practice
- Review strategies for identifying gaps in practice such as the ACOVE model
- Discuss strategies for constructing QIs to address gaps in practice.
- Describe the process of quality indicator development with a particular focus on the role of PCPI and NQF.
- Discuss why OT has so few approved measures, particularly process measures.
Week 7: Defining Quality in Occupational Therapy: OT-Sensitive Quality Indicators
- Become familiar the concept of nursing-sensitive indicators
- Identify the rationale for developing nursing-sensitive indicators
- Examine how similar concepts might be developed for occupational therapy in post-acute care
- Apply the issues of quality measurement or quality improvement in an OT-specific context and debate the concept of OT-sensitive indicators
Week 8: Displaying and Interpreting Quality Data – Run charts
- Compare and contrast the utility of a variety of strategies for tracking the success of quality improvement projects.
- Identify components of a run chart
- Understand how to identify common causes and special causes of variation
- Describe the role of run charts in monitoring health care processes
Week 9: Displaying and Interpreting Quality Data – Control charts
- Identify when corrective actions might be indicated during implementation of a quality improvement project.
- Identify the components of a control chart
- Describe the role of run charts in monitoring health care processes
Week 10: Making Change Happen – Approaches for Improving the Quality of Care
- Describe the components of the PDSA and DMAIC cycles
- Discuss how these can enhance occupational therapy quality improvement efforts
- Apply these ideas to strategies for facilitating improvement in your practice area
Week 11: Making Change Happen – The Role of Implementation Science
- Become familiar with concepts of Implementation Science
- Identify some of the components to be considered when implementing innovations
- Describe components of successful implementations in occupational therapy and rehabilitation
Week 12: Making Change Happen – examples of quality improvement
- Examine examples of quality improvement initiatives in rehabilitation
- Identify factors that made implementation of these innovations successful
- Reflect on one’s own role as a professional in quality improvement
Week 13: Thanksgiving Break – a time for reflection
- Identify an example of an innovation in quality improvement that is interesting to you
- Synthesize what you have learned over the course of the semester in order to describe why you thought this was a good example of quality improvement
Week 14: Innovation Presentations
Course Assessment
