Course Description

Innovations in health care have the potential to achieve efficiency, reduce health care costs, and ensure high-quality patient outcomes. But to achieve these goals, we must determine and adopt standards for health care quality and safety. Through lectures, interviews with national leaders, case studies, and hands-on practice, this course introduces students to quality improvement tools and measurement techniques that can help you address pressing opportunities for health care innovation. You will also learn how quality improvement initiatives can be leveraged to drive value for stakeholders across the health care system.

The course includes a simulation in which students take on the role of quality improvement consultants, engaged by a hospital to solve an exigent problem related to patient care and community safety. 

Key Topics
  • The history of quality and quality improvement in health care
  • The definition of value from the perspective of clinicians, payers, government agencies, and health system leaders
  • Methods for evaluating the quality of health care delivered, key players, and how quality translates into value
  • Current focus of health care quality, including
    • health care equity and social determinants of health
    • worker turnover and burnout
    • patient experience
  • Regulatory and legal considerations in health care quality
  • Principles and tools of quality improvement
  • Advice for pitching health care innovations to various stakeholders

A segment on understanding quality, from Value and Quality in Health Care.

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Recognize the historical perspective of health care quality and safety and how it has shaped the current US health care quality and safety focus.
  • Explain the categories of measures that are used to assess and compare the quality of care provided by health care organizations.
  • Outline the federal government's quality strategy and policy levers available to improve quality of care.
  • Evaluate the potential of quality initiatives and start-ups to provide value within the health care ecosystem. 
  • Apply quality improvement tools to understand and present a solution to real-world heath care problem.