Course Descriptions – QIPS
These courses are for students registered in the MSc QIPS concentration. Space permitting, students from other concentrations may enroll, after obtaining permission from the instructor.
HAD3010H: Fundamentals of Improvement Science
HAD3020H: Quality Improvement Methods
HAD3030H: Concepts and Strategies in Patient Safety
HAD3040Y: Project Practicum
HAD3050H: Leading and Managing Change
HAD3060H: Quality Improvement in Health Systems
HAD3070H: Legal and Regulatory Environment and Risk Management
HAD3090H: LEAN Application in Healthcare (Elective)
HAD5777H: Leading and Managing Change: Building Adaptive Capacity (Elective)
HAD3025H: Teaching QI Methods (Elective)
HAD4000H: Human Factors(Elective)
HAD3010H
Course Number | HAD3010H |
Course Name | Fundamentals of Improvement Science |
Prerequisite | Summer project, pre-work readings, completion of on-line QI modules, work place project |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Fall |
Instructor | Ross Baker Patricia Trbovich |
Description: This will provide core improvement concepts for students in the new Masters of Science in Improvement stream. Students will have varying experience with health care improvement and patient safety and will have different professional backgrounds. The fundamentals course will provide a solid baseline for future courses; an understanding of the prerequisite knowledge base; areas of focus (key themes) for the program; an understanding of critical quality and safety issues facing health care today, an appreciation of the research elements of the program and an introduction to statistical process controls used in improvement processes. Specifically the course provides an introduction to program themes related to quality improvement skills and capacity; the rate of uptake, spread and sustainability of evidence based quality improvement ; leadership, innovation and change management skills; coordination and implementation of improvements across organization and between levels of health care.Course Content by Module: All classes will combine didactic and small group interactive exercises, and guest lecturers will be invited to share expertise from the field for approximately one hour during most of the modules. This course will provide a framework for improvement science, and introduce key concepts that will be applied and expanded upon in subsequent courses in this master’s stream. |
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HAD3020H
Course Number | HAD3020H |
Course Name | Quality Improvement Methods |
Prerequisite | HAD3010H |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Fall |
Instructor | Paula Blackstien-Hirsch Nava Maham Erin Spicer |
Description:This course will cover concepts and methods used for quality improvement in healthcare and will build on the basics covered in the Fundamentals of Improvement Science course. Topics will include methods and tools required to design and implement a quality improvement project from start to finish. The course will begin with an organizational context for conducting quality improvement work at a micro-system level, identification of team-based enablers for successful improvement, and three key approaches/models for improvement. The course will subsequently focus on the most common methods, tools and measurement techniques used to improve healthcare delivery, and will conclude with essentials for sustaining change at a microsystem level, as well as incorporating a workshop on Experience-Based Design, a method for engaging patients in improvement work.The course structure will mirror the flow of an improvement project, beginning with initial design, and continuing through the diagnostic, solution generation, testing, measuring, and implementation phases. Students will be expected to apply the concepts introduced throughout the course to their individual improvement projects. The course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skill necessary to plan and implement a successful quality improvement project, and to distinguish the most appropriate methods and tools to include in project design, based on the specific improvement challenges being addressed. | |||||||||||
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HAD3030H
Course Number | HAD3030H |
Course Name | Concepts and Strategies in Patient Safety |
Prerequisite | n/a |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Winter |
Instructor | Kaveh Shojania Anne Matlow |
Description: Efforts to improve patient safety have thus far fallen into two different but, not mutually exclusive categories: 1) a “safety science approach”, drawing on lessons from other high risk industries to develop systems for reporting and learning from safety problems, recognizing the degree to which human errors are often facilitated by latent system problems, attention to human factors design principles affecting everything from equipment use to shift schedules and clinical environments, as well as the importance of teamwork, communication strategies, and organizational culture. 2) “evidence-based medicine approach”: as with much clinical research, this approach targets common problems (in this case, harms caused by medical care as opposed to diseases), looks for interventions to prevent such complications (e.g., prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism, bundles for preventing central-line associated infections, bar-coding to prevent medication administration errors), assesses the evidence supporting these interventions and the degree to which effective implementation strategies also exist.Beginning with a brief history of patient safety in healthcare, including high profile cases and seminal studies that launched the widespread interest in patient safety, the course will cover key concepts and examples from both of the approaches to studying and reducing patient safety problems. The course will use examples of commonly discussed patient safety practices to convey the state of the evidence supporting the practices as well as key underlying concepts. For instance, the discussion of order sets and computerized decision support will include a review of what is known about their current effectiveness, but also include human factors concepts related to optimal order set design. Similarly, the discussion of checklists will include not just the evidence supporting their benefit (e.g., in peri-operative settings) but also the importance of attending to teamwork and communication issues that support successful implementation. |
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This course will utilize some of the principles learned in Quality Improvements Methods course to illustrate patient safety issues (e.g. Analysis of Statistical Process Control charts). |
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HAD3040Y
Course Number | HAD3040H |
Course Name | Project Practicum |
Prerequisite | HAD3010H and HAD3020H |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Fall, Winter & Spring |
Instructors | Patricia Trbovich Ross Baker Kaveh Shojania Christine Soong |
Description: The broad learning goal for the project course is to effectively apply principles, theories and methods of improvement science to a workplace issue. More specifically, students will learn to exercise creative and critical thinking, analyze a process, model, or situation to determine where specific interventions should be targeted, determine if an intervention is even necessary, and determine whether desired outcomes have been achieved and to assess the impact and sustainability of the interventions The project course includes the fundamentals of project management, practical skills and tools for rigorous design and implementation of a QI project, statistical methods for QI, methods for critiquing the literature related to the interventions identified and skills for writing for publication and what QI journals typically look for when reviewing articles. Students will learn to evaluate their projects from a broader perspective, assessing how an intervention fits within a broader healthcare context and how to design quality improvement projects to answer more complex questions.Instructional time will be embedded into each required course to cover the learning objectives that relate specifically to the project practicum and a session in each module will be dedicated to project development and discussion. For example the fall term courses will include instruction on literature reviews, research methods that are appropriate for quality improvement projects, discussion about research ethics, and project charters, reporting project progress to executive sponsors, development of indicators and measures. Students will meet regularly with their project mentors for guidance on their projects. |
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HAD3050H
Course Number | HAD3050H |
Course Name | Leading and Managing Change |
Prerequisite | n/a |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Fall |
Instructors | Tina Smith Christine Shea |
Description: The course will cover the knowledge domains of systems thinking and theories derived from social science, organizational theories, and psychology related to influencing transformational change and overcoming resistance to change at the clinical micro-system level and will cover a number of topic areas including:
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Objectives, Learning Outcomes:The overall course objective is to enhance individual leadership capacities and provide leadership tools for influencing organizational effectiveness around quality improvement and patient safety at the clinical microsystem level.Upon completion of this course it is expected that students will:
This course will utilize some of the principles learned in Quality Improvements Methods course to illustrate patient safety issues (e.g. Analysis of Statistical Process Control charts). |
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HAD3060H
Course Number | HAD3060H |
Course Name | Quality Improvement in Health Systems |
Prerequisite | HAD3020H |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Winter |
Instructors | Ross Baker Chris Hayes |
Description: This course focuses on understanding how healthcare organizations and broader health systems create and implement strategies to improve care. The course builds upon the quality knowledge, skills and methods provided in the Leadership and Managing Change Course, the Concepts and Strategies in Patient Safety course and Fundamentals Course. In this course we shift focus from an emphasis on quality improvement and patient safety at a team or microsystem level to emphasize the key elements of organizations and broader healthcare systems needed to implement, spread and sustain improvements in turbulent health care environments. What knowledge do leaders need to support improvement? What is the role of governing boards? What benefit and how can we include patients in the design of care processes and systems? How do electronic health records help to promote quality improvement and patient safety? Case studies, guest lectures, readings, discussions and exercises will be use to identify key issues facing health care systems, strategies for addressing these issues and the factors that influence successful implantation of organizational and system-wide improvement efforts. |
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HAD3070H
Course Number | HAD3070H |
Course Name | Legal and Regulatory Environment and Risk Management |
Prerequisite | n/a |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Winter |
Instructors | Melanie DeWit C. Haines |
Description: This course will cover a number of topic areas including:
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HAD3090H
Course Number | HAD3090H |
Course Name | LEAN Application in Healthcare |
Prerequisite | IHI Open School modules focused on Quality Improvement (QI 101 to 106) & Leadership (L 101), HAD3010H and HAD3020H |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Fall |
Instructors | Paula Blackstien-Hirsch Ron Bercaw |
Description: This course will cover lean based concepts and methods used for quality improvement in healthcare and will build on the basics of quality improvement covered in the Fundamentals of Improvement Science and Quality Improvement Methods courses, including the application of basic Lean concepts and principles. This course, focused entirely on Lean Improvement, will include methods and tools required to design, implement, and sustain Lean process improvements from start to finish. The course will begin with an overview of the fundamentals and the roots of Lean improvement and will then focus on the application of the scientific method using the A3 form and A3 thinking. Subsequently, the course will delve deeply into common Lean-based tools used to see and eliminate waste within healthcare. The course will conclude with approaches for sustaining change using visual management techniques at team and leadership levels, with a focus on key systems and tools used to support Lean Management. |
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Objectives:Through a combination of praxis and didactic methods, the course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skill necessary to participate fully in local and system level Lean improvement initiatives, and to have the capability to select appropriate Lean tools to address specific type of process issues, and to lead components of a large Lean-based improvement initiative. |
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HAD5777H
Course Number | HAD5777H |
Course Name | Leading and Managing Change: Building Adaptive Capacity |
Prerequisite | HAD3050H or HAD5731H |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Winter |
Instructors | Tina Smith Christine Shea |
Description: In this course, learners are presented with a leadership framework that focuses on building the capacity within themselves, their teams and their organizations to respond adaptively to the depth, pace and scope of change that is creating unprecedented conditions in healthcare systems today (S. Dalzo-Parks, 2005). Based on the work of Ronald Heifetz, the framework requires a paradigm shift from viewing leadership as a role or person to seeing it as an activity – the activity of making progress on adaptive challenges; and from viewing the organization as a static entity to seeing it as an organism capable of adapting to its environment. It requires those exercising leadership to understand the dynamics of social systems, and to trust in their own and others creativity and intuition (S. Dalzo-Parks, 2005). Finally, it addresses the ethical challenges associated with leadership as critical choices must take into account the diversity of perspectives surrounding the issue, and the moral courage and resilience required to challenge assumed values i.e. the notion of a good death. The second, in a two-part series on Leading and Managing Change, the overall goal of this course is to facilitate the building of adaptive capacity within healthcare systems by deepening the practice of developing both ourselves and others intentionally, mindfully and creatively. Through in-class discussion and small group consultation labs, participants will learn to mobilize constructive change through the development of a new and enhanced capacity to see, effectively analyze, and strategically intervene. |
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HAD3025H
Course Number | HAD3025H |
Course Name | Teaching QI and Patient Safety |
Prerequisite | HAD3010H and HAD3020H |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Spring/Summer |
Instructors | B. Wong Christine Shea |
Description: The main focus of this course is to help participants acquire the necessary skills to teach quality improvement and patient safety to peers and trainees in their own practice setting. Participants will develop the ability to utilize a variety of different pedagogical approaches to teach quality improvement and patient safety, including large group interactive lecturing, facilitating small group discussions, case-based learning (including re-vamped patient safety M&M rounds), use of role play/video debrief and experiential quality improvement projects. . |
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HAD4000H-S2
Course Number | HAD4000H |
Course Name | Human Factors |
Prerequisite | n/a |
Delivery Format | Modular |
Semester Offered | Winter |
Instructor | Patricia Trbovich |
Description: This course will provide the learner with a comprehensive working knowledge of Human Factors (HF) and how it relates to and affects health care safety. It focuses on key concepts and frameworks in HF research and practice and identifies how these can be applied to and tailored depending on the health care issue. This knowledge is relevant to policy makers, practicing clinicians, health care managers, and health services researchers. |
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