IHI Open School Gives Residents Tools to Improve Quality, Patient Safety

When resident physicians find themselves suddenly thrown into the workforce after medical school, they quickly discover the importance of teamwork and leadership. They may begin to hear buzzwords like “quality improvement” and “patient-centered care.” Employers place a premium on these skills, yet these areas are rarely covered in medical school.

That knowledge gap led the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to create the IHI Open School for Health Professions in 2008.

“The idea behind the Open School was, ‘How can we galvanize the next generation of health care professionals to create change in quality improvement and patient safety?’” said Dr. Jay Bhatt, a CIR delegate at Cambridge Health Alliance who has been active with the Open School since its formation.

Much like CIR, the Open School provides a vehicle for students and professionals who want to become change agents in their workplaces. Using an interactive Web site as well as monthly conference calls and local in-person chapter meetings, the IHI Open School offers students and new professionals in all health fields – medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, policy, etc. – the resources to learn state-of-the-art approaches to improving the care systems in which they will work.

As of February 2010, the school had more than 174 chapters in 24 countries, and more than 20,000 registered members. Dr. Bhatt initially got involved due to his interest in resident work hours and how that culture was contributing to patient harm and self harm, he said. But he has since gained expertise in a range of quality improvement issues, including the safe surgery checklist, teamwork and cooperation, and waste and efficiency.

At his hospital, Dr. Bhatt and his colleagues have put into practice some of the lessons of the Open School. One program implemented a new sign-out process as a result of role-play interaction and IHI Open School course modules. Other residents noticed that labs were being canceled without the physician knowing about it, Dr. Bhatt said, and the IHI Open School participants felt empowered to address the issue as a group, putting a system into place to prevent it from occurring in the future.

For Dr. Bhatt, the value of the IHI Open School lies largely in building community around change, and finding mentors.

“Being involved in organizations like the Open School and CIR allows you to effect change and also to have this mentorship that can be really valuable,” Dr. Bhatt said. For more information, go to: www.ihi.org/IHI/Programs/IHIOpenSchool