Recommendations
to complete IHI
models
Richard Vipond is a Public Health Physician
working with Māori Health Planning and
Funding Team and is currently working on
a project to increase Māori attendance at
appointments.
Andrew Lane and Fergus Stuart, two
junior doctors who are working with Allan
Plant to test the use of a tablet to access
results at the bedside for surgical patients
on the ward round at Tauranga Hospital.
Quality
Improvement
Residency
Programme
Quality Improvement Residency is a programme
supporting leaders of the future with dedicated
time to learn quality improvement skills that
can be applied throughout their careers. So
far, seven House Officers have completed the
residency which has now been expanded to
include Nursing and Allied Health. Allan Plant
is the latest QI Resident and here he shares
with us his experience of quality improvement
through the eyes of a junior doctor.
I’m one of the second year House Officers at Tauranga Hospital.
Throughout medical school, my exposure to quality improvement was
limited to a one-week project we all attended (rather begrudgingly)
during our semester break. It wasn’t until I started work that I began to
appreciate the value in quality improvement. Like most junior doctors
I transitioned from bright-eyed and bushy tailed to baggy-eyed and
tired at some point during my first year, and my idealistic view of the
health workforce soon became a bit more realistic. All of us have
identified areas where things could improve. I’ve overheard enough
lunch-time conversations to be sure of that fact.
However, not all of us have sought to improve those gaps that we
identify. I undertook a quality improvement project looking at the
use of mobile devices on surgical ward rounds. I had hoped that
the use of such devices would make ward rounds safer, faster,
and more efficient. The project is currently ongoing so only time
will tell whether or not this is actually the case but, irrespective
of the outcome, undertaking such a project has taught me great
skills for improving the quality of the service we provide. More
than that, the project has given me the chance to turn my lunchtime complaints into something that can hopefully benefit the
organisation as a whole.
Using a model such as IHI allows for the systematic
identification of a problem or inefficiency. It means gaining the
necessary culture of change, testing interventions to determine
how successful they are and then implementing them across
the wider sector to produce meaningful improvements in
quality and safety, value for money and improved health – thus
working towards the Health Quality & Safety Commissions’
Triple Aim.
The IHI learnings have