QUALITY AND SAFETY EDUCATION
Today’s health care environment is extremely complex and challenging.
The literature and experience show us that understanding how to
improve is critical to successful organizations, given that approximately
50% of health care costs in an acute setting are quality-associated
waste. Eliminating waste and errors and improving outcomes by
decreasing variation and managing processes are increasingly
recognized as critical skills within a health care organization such as
UAB Medicine.
To build these competencies across UAB Medicine, we partnered
with the School of Health Professions 5 years ago to develop the
UAB Medicine Quality Academy, which officially is known as the
UAB Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Quality and Safety (HQS).
This program is a unique, multidisciplinary approach to the analysis
of and solutions for today’s medical and operational problems. The
program prepares clinical and administrative professionals to deploy
quality- and safety-focused strategies for their work environments. It
is an academically rigorous forum for developing individual knowledge
and skills necessary to conduct clinical and operational process
improvement projects in complex medical environments, and it serves
as the core of our training in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.
The success of the program, which is highly valued by participants,
has led it to become the No. 1 graduate certificate at UAB. Participants
have returned to their respective areas with new knowledge and ideas
for improvement – a goal of the program – and are making a difference
by improving care deliv