Interdisciplinary Quality Improvement Conference: Using a Revised Morbidity and Mortality Format to Focus on...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Administration
• Patient Safety and Quality Improvement
• Medical Education

Background:

• The Veterans Healthcare Administration (VA) prioritizes patient safety and quality improvement.
• The New Mexico VA Health Care System sought to enhance its quality improvement processes.
• Existing morbidity and mortality conferences were revised to focus on systems-based practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate a novel Interdisciplinary Quality Improvement Conference (IQIC).
• To assess the effectiveness of the IQIC in identifying and correcting patient care systems issues.
• To determine the IQIC's utility in teaching Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) core requirements to residents.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a structured Interdisciplinary Quality Improvement Conference (IQIC).
• Utilized patient case presentations to identify underlying systems issues in clinical care.
• Established formal processes for case selection, presentation, issue identification, tracking, and follow-up.

Main Results:

• The IQIC facilitated the identification of over 20 system issues within the healthcare system.
• Outcome data demonstrated sustained improvements in system issues addressed through the IQIC mechanism.
• The conference effectively served as a teaching tool for the 6 ACGME core requirements.

Conclusions:

• The VA IQIC is an effective model for identifying and rectifying systems issues impacting patient care.
• The IQIC contributes to enhancing patient safety and quality within the VA system.
• This conference model provides a valuable educational platform for resident training in quality improvement and systems thinking.