Mark is a first year emergency medicine resident waiting in the trauma bay for an incoming thirty year old male with a penetrating stab wound to the chest. He wonders if he will have to insert a chest tube for this patient. It has been a long time since he did one in medical school and his memory of the steps is fuzzy. He wishes there was a tool to help him learn …
Designing a QI project – a Comparison of Quality Improvement and Traditional Research Paradigms
You are attending your local ED monthly rounds where a journal club is being held discussing a Quality Improvement (QI) published paper. As the rounds progress, your presenter critiques the article and discusses perceived weaknesses including a small sample size, lack of randomization and blinding, and lists many different possible biases in this project. You reflect back on your previous journal clubs and wonder whether it makes sense to apply a research-style critical …
Teaching That Counts: Giving Feedback
View PostReporting QI Results Part 1 – Run Charts
You are attending your first Quality Committee meeting in your ED. The team is discussing a project they have been working on to decrease unnecessary urine cultures at the urgent care centre associated with the ED. The team has already created a project charter with an appropriate aim statement1. They have engaged the appropriate stakeholders and found the best practices for ordering urine cultures in uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs)2. The team found …
Special HiQuiPs Post – Choosing Wisely Canada and Quality Improvement
Welcome to another HiQuiPs post! This is the first in a series of posts highlighting Choosing Wisely, an international movement that addresses unnecessary tests and treatments, which has spurred many local, national, and international QI initiatives. In our last post, we discussed variation in the efficiency of medical processes and how this can be attributed to random or non-random (special cause) variation. Variation can be seen throughout different processes in the ED. For …