Quality Improvement & Patient Safety

Course overview

This intermediate, asynchronous, case-based course prepares licensed healthcare professionals to plan, implement, and sustain quality improvement (QI) initiatives that enhance patient safety. Learners build practical competence in selecting QI models, conducting root cause analyses, using measurement for improvement, and leading change in real clinical settings. Through realistic patient safety cases, participants practice: Defining an improvement aim and selecting meaningful measures, Performing root cause analysis (RCA) with a systems focus and identifying strong corrective actions, Displaying and interpreting data over time (e.g., run charts), Designing and documenting rapid-cycle tests of change (PDSA), Strengthening safety culture and psychological safety, Planning sustainability and evaluation. The course emphasizes that tools like RCA and PDSA can be powerful, but outcomes depend on fidelity, action strength, and follow-through limitations and implementation challenges documented in the literature are explicitly addressed in course activities.