2018 marks the 10th year of the GNYHA/United Hospital Fund (UHF) Clinical Quality Fellowship Program (CQFP). While the two organizations have partnered on numerous quality improvement initiatives over the past decade, CQFP is unique in its mission to develop and nurture the next generation of clinical quality leaders in the New York metropolitan region. CQFP has given clinicians the necessary skills to lead hospital-based quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.
Through a 15-month program, fellows learn to use a variety of tools and strategies to advance quality and patient safety from a faculty of quality improvement leaders from the region. To date, 149 have graduated from the program, not including the outgoing ninth class, which will graduate 28 clinicians from 24 hospitals next month. Every CQFP graduate has implemented a hospital-based quality improvement capstone initiative under the guidance of seasoned CQFP faculty.
Capstone topics have included:
- Improving efficiency in health care delivery
- Improving transitions of patients across care settings
- Reducing complications of care
- Reducing infections
- Reducing morbidity and mortality from sepsis
Supporting CQFP’s goal of developing leaders in quality and safety, nearly 60% of all fellows received a promotional opportunity after completing the program.
The 10th class, comprised of 29 physician and nurse fellows from 24 hospitals, participated in a second two-day retreat earlier this month. Fellows were immersed in advanced patient safety and quality improvement issues, including fostering a culture of safety, human factors engineering, root cause analysis, use of data for quality improvement and research, effective leadership and followership, and improving the patient experience. They will now implement a rigorous capstone quality improvement initiative at their facilities.
Each fall, GNYHA and UHF solicit applications from potential fellows nominated by hospital leadership. Fellows are selected by year’s end and the new class begins in January. GNYHA member hospitals are encouraged to nominate candidates ahead of the program’s application period.