QI Projects

Current UTHealth Houston faculty, trainees, and staff know the Department of Pediatrics is passionate about quality improvement. UTHealth Houston is one of the nation’s most comprehensive academic health-science centers and brings together the best in health care across hundreds of disciplines and specialties. Teamwork fuels this excellence in health education, innovation, scientific discovery, and patient care, allowing UTHealth Houston to solve the greatest health challenges of this time.

Additionally, the Department of Pediatrics leads McGovern Medical School among quality improvement (QI) initiatives, with more than 170 QI projects since 2017. The Institute of Medicine’s Six Domains of Healthcare Quality is at the core of the Department’s quality assessment:

Each of the six domains serves a vital role in the overall quality of care. Safety refers to prevention of injury or death. Effectiveness measures how well a treatment or procedure works in achieving its intended purpose. Efficiency determines how well a resource is being used or how quickly something is performed. Equity ensures that everyone has an equal chance of getting the best possible care. Patient-centered care considers the needs and preferences of each patient on an individual basis.

An understanding of each area and its importance enables health care providers to improve the quality of the care to their patients. Educating medical students, residents, fellows, faculty, and staff on these domains places emphasis and effort behind improvement in all aspects of an organization.

Here are some examples of Department of Pediatrics QI initiatives from each of the six domains of health care quality.

  • Handwashing
  • Reducing infections
  • Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI)
  • Education for Surveillance/Caregivers with adolescents that need supervision while Inpatient
  • Advancing Pediatric Resident Behavioral Health Education and Aggression Management in an Acute Care Inpatient Pediatrics Setting
  • Masks and distance during COVID
  • Variances

  • Research on latest and most advanced care
  • Treatment: This or that is better?
    • Beta-Lactam antibiotic Selection
  • Survey projects:
    • Epilepsy Education
  • Treatment Pathways:
    • Asthma Exacerbation in ER pathway
    • Osteomyelitis pathway
  • Education:
    • Implementation of an educational bedside guideline for pediatric traumatic brain injuries in the pediatric intensive care unit
  • Screening
    • Improving Microalbuminuria Type 2 Diabetes
    • Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)

  • Trust Based Relational Intervention® Principles for Medical Students
  • Optimizing Language Access for those Speaking Languages other than English

  • Reduce wait times in waiting rooms

  • Creating order sets in Epic at clinics for physicians
  • Improving Sepsis Huddles
  • Diabetes Transition of Care Program
  • Improved Physician Nursing Communication
  • How many tracheal aspirate cultures should we be obtaining in CMHH’s NICU?

  • SDoH Project
    • Clinic
    • Inpatient
  • Understanding barriers ancillary care for children with medical complexity
  • A Holistic Approach to Medical Education Focused on Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
  • Improving access to healthy food and nutrition education for obesity prevention among at-risk children through Brighter Bites

 

Ready to get started?

UTHealth Houston faculty, trainees, and staff can learn more about the QI process from the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS). Register a QI project with UTHealth Houston by completing the QI Project Registration Form.

For more information about Quality Improvement projects please visit our SharePoint intranet site.

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