What is AQSI?
A featured program for residents interested in quality improvement is the Academy for Quality and Safety Improvement. AQSI is a six-month professional development program designed to equip healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively lead quality improvement. The program involves formal QI training and a self-proposed team project
For more information, click here.
IM Residents in AQSI
Recent Highlights
Dr. Erin Cleveland (former IM Residency chief medical resident and now Landsberg Society Member) participated in the 2018-2019 AQSI program. Her team chose to look at screenings for hepatocellular carcinoma (a form of liver cancer) in patients with Hepatitis C. Dr. Cleveland’s project won the award for BEST project. Judges were impressed with the presentation and quality of her project.
The result will be education for primary care physicians on screening protocols and new alerts in CPRS that should help increase screening rates.
From left to right: Dr. Kelly Wachsberg, Dr. Erin Cleveland, Dr. Andrea Birnbaum
AQSI Projects 2023 - 2024
| AQSI Project | IM Residents |
|---|---|
| Increasing number of patients with OUD discharged from the hospitalist service on medication directed therapy | Rachel Orbuch, MD Patrick Keller, MD |
| Decreasing time to complete central line placement in the MICU | Joseph Fuchs, MD Kipp Johnson, MD PhD Tejasvi Peesay, MD Matthew Stanton, MD Wendy Tong, MD |
| Increasing compliance with GDMT in admitted heart failure patients | Toluwalase Awoyemi, MD PhD |
AQSI Projects 2021-2022
| AQSI Project Name | Project Goal | IM Residents |
|---|---|---|
| To the ER Boarders: ICU | Eliminating time between ICU acceptance and ICU transfer for critically ill patients in the emergency room. | Alison Szabo, Jason Arnold |
| PICCing up the Slack | To improve clinical outcomes, reduce the number of readmissions, reduce the number of calls regarding outpatient antibiotic therapy (OPAT) for discharged patients by utilizing s new discharge checklist order set in EPIC. | Shalini Jayawickrama, Thomas Enke |
AQSI Projects 2020-2021
| AQSI Project Name | Project Goal | IM Residents |
|---|---|---|
| CellSavers | Patients undergoing LE arterial bypass at NMH are 2x likely to receive periop transfusion vs national average. Aims to reduce overall transfusion rate in patients undergoing bypass by 1/2 | Aaron Parzuchowski |
| DiaBeaters | Improve medical oversight of orthopedic surgery patients who are identified in the NMH preoperative clinic to have sub-optimally controlled diabetes and who are canceled for surgery | Alice Kerr, Martin Gruca |
| Leggo My Echo | Our goal is to reduce the overuse of echocardiograms for appropriately identified patients with low-risk non-cardiac syncope | Michael Jiang, Pamela Wax |
| Saturday Night Fever | Reduce time in the ED for patients presenting with neutropenia/neutropenic fevers | Eric Silberman, Chelsea Thompson, Cait Visek |
2019-2020 AQSI Projects
| Project | IM Resident Membership |
|---|---|
| Decrease opioid prescriptions from hospitalist units | John Bowers, Jordan Gavin, Jasleen Ghuman |
| Increase the use of prone positioning in patients with severe Acute Respiratory Distress syndrome (ARDS) | Elisa McEachern, Jamie Treadway (Chief Resident), Eleanor Yang |
| Decrease hospitalization and technique failure in home dialysis outpatient unit | Harini Gurram |
| Decrease the CT utilization for inappropriate PE studies | Cece Johnson-Sasso |
| Decrease the prevalence of primary hyperalsosteronism in patients with hypertension | Philip Speigel |