Showcasing the Leaders and Best: Quality Month makes call for posters

Even in the face of unprecedented challenges caused by a global pandemic, faculty and staff across Michigan Medicine are implementing quality improvement efforts to ensure safe, quality care for patients.

In celebration of the continuous improvement efforts still happening across the organization, Michigan Medicine is looking for teams to submit their work for recognition as a Quality Month poster. Today marks the first day that posters will be accepted.

Quality Month — held every October at Michigan Medicine — is a yearly celebration of the hard work that faculty and staff demonstrate every day toward continuous improvement and enhancing the quality and safety of care provided to patients. 

The due date for posters to be submitted is Friday, July 10.

Click here for more information on how to submit a poster.

Save the date — sharing your success

Due to the unanticipated events associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and potential for a resurgence in the fall, the Quality Month Symposium and poster session will likely look different this year, but Michigan Medicine remains committed to recognizing quality improvement efforts.

Final details will be announced in the near future, but anyone interested in attending should save the date for Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. A virtual option is also being considered.

More details will be shared as they are finalized in the coming months, so be sure to keep an eye on Headlines for more information.

A poster template is available for teams wanting to submit their work, however, any project previously submitted to another conference or event can be submitted to Quality Month in an existing format.

Teams interested in reviewing a project with a continuous improvement specialist can click here to set up a time for one-on-one virtual coaching. 

Quality improvement tools

If you are part of a team working on an improvement project or are looking for resources to help with a project, the Quality Department website has an abundance of tools and templates that can help. Each tool comes with instructions for use (some have links to short learning videos) and a completed sample.

To assist you in identifying the best tool(s) for your team, there is a Quality Improvement Tool Roadmap. This roadmap allows individuals to visually walk through the problem-solving process and highlights specific tools that will be useful at each stage.

“These tools and templates may be particularly useful for teams working on projects related to the organization’s COVID-19 response,” said Kevin DeHority, chair of the Quality Month committee. “Be sure to document any problem solving techniques applied to projects tied to the current outbreak. Poster submissions for these projects will likely be of great interest this year.”

All of these tools are available on the Quality Department website and are freely available to all U-M faculty and staff.