Developing Best Clinical Practices Through Outcomes Improvement: An Ongoing Quality Improvement Curriculum for Faculty and Residents

INTRODUCTION: Practice patterns in clinical learning environments are an important predictor of the patient care quality that residents will deliver after training. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Clinical Learning Environment Review Evaluation Committee reported that from 2012–2015, residents and fellows rarely engaged in quality improvement (QI) activities. A QI curriculum was created for OB-GYN faculty and trainees to develop and implement best practices and study the resulting improvement in patient outcomes. METHODS: Educational leadership in the Dell Medical School Department of Women's Health designed a five-stage curriculum: (1) learning module describing the curriculum's rationale, (2) clinical practice proposal development, (3) implementation/data analysis for selected proposals, (4) dissemination of proposals and outcomes during a live forum, and (5) evaluation. PGY1 and PGY4 OB-GYN residents collaborated in dyads with selected faculty mentors to draft evidence-based proposals. Dyads identified suggested outcomes measures to be analyzed postimplementation. Remaining faculty analyzed outcomes from the previous year's proposals with PGY2 and PGY3 OB-GYN residents. RESULTS: Forum participants, including faculty, residents, nursing staff, and private obstetrician-gynecologists, evaluated the activity. In 2017, 15 (35%) completed the evaluation. All respondents intended to change their practice based on findings. In addition, the 2016 ACGME survey indicated significant increases in faculty perception of resident QI from 58% in 2014–2015 to 89% in 2015–2016 (p = .01) and in collaboration in scholarly activity from 50% to 85% (p < .01). DISCUSSION: This curriculum was effective in engaging OB-GYN faculty and residents in formalized problem-based learning to address QI.