BMI 5315 Quality and Outcome Improvement in Healthcare

3 semester credit hours
Lecture contact hours: 2; Lab contact hours: 3
Web-based instruction
Prerequisite: Basic statistics knowledge

This introductory course provides an overview to health care quality from the view of information science and the discipline of informatics. It takes a patient-centered approach that covers the complexities of quality and the scientific basis for understanding the measurement and improvement of quality, including exposure to multiple measures from a variety of organizations and measure comparison sites such as Medicare Compare. It provides the learner with a framework for key theories and concepts and models of quality improvement. Students will be introduced to health information technology safety issues, including tools for operationalizing HIT safety. Learners will be introduced to data quality, the challenges of data from devices and e-quality measures, as well as experience the challenge of calculating quality measures with data from the EHR. The merging of quality outcomes with evolving reimbursement paradigms and models will be examined.

Upon successfully completing this course, students will:

• Discuss the fundamentals of health care quality management including the improvement cycle.
• Analyze and apply methods for the measurement, assessment, and improvement of healthcare quality.
• Apply common quality tools including workflow diagrams, failure modes and effects analysis to common healthcare quality issues.
• Employ basic components of EHR safety elements that influence patient outcomes.
• Diagnose current quality issues in healthcare and the intersection of informatics in development of quality improvement programs.