Teaching Quality Improvement in Occupational Medicine. Issue 4 (April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sorita, Atsushi; Raslau, David; Murad, Mohammad Hassan; Steffen, Mark W.
• Is Part Of: Journal of occupational and environmental medicine. Volume 57:Issue 4(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-04
• Subjects: Medicine, Industrial -- Periodicals; Environmental health -- Periodicals; Occupational Medicine -- Periodicals; Environmental Medicine -- Periodicals; Environmental health; Medicine, Industrial; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 616.9803
• DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000000394
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1076-2752

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec> <title>Objective:</title> <p>To describe a successful, resident-led quality improvement (QI) project that improved the efficiency of the Department of Transportation (DOT) medical examination process.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Methods:</title> <p>After learning QI principles through didactics, workshops, and online modules, residents led a QI project to streamline the process of the DOT examination. An interdisciplinary group of key stakeholders collaborated to analyze the process and to design and implement interventions.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Results:</title> <p>Following the Model for Improvement and Lean concepts, residents ran seven Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles over a 4-month period with multiple iteration and testing changes. Compared with the baseline, the team successfully reduced the total visit time (from check-in to check-out) by 28 minutes (102 minutes vs. 130 minutes; <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001). The accuracy of certificate issuance, as proxy for quality of the examinations, improved after the interventions.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>Conclusions:</title> <p>Residents successfully improved the efficiency of the DOT examination process.</p> </sec> </abstract>