Transforming Residency Training: Resident QI Clinics Launch at Harlem and Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Centers with Mentorship from SHM

Although two Institute of Medicine reports said medical educators fall short on giving physician residents the skills they need to make sure patients get high quality and safe care, less than 20 percent of U.S. medical schools and residency programs today offer this kind of training.

To address these serious gaps, the CIR Policy and Education Initiative (CIR PEI) is partnering with the Society of Hospital Medicine to run Resident Quality Improvement (QI) Clinics at Harlem Hospital Center and Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center. Resident physicians at these two hospitals have been actively engaged in patient safety and quality initiatives.

A kickoff event for the new QI Clinics will be held Wednesday, January 21 at 12 pm at the Harlem Hospital Mural Pavilion. Senior leadership from the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, Harlem Hospital, and staff and members of the Committee of Interns and Residents are expected to participate.

"This is a great opportunity for our doctors in training,” said Harlem Hospital Medical Director Dr. Maurice Wright. “Most physicians deliver care as a part of a multi-disciplinary team. They must garner the knowledge and skills necessary to provide high quality and safe healthcare within a team model. This training will give them the knowledge and skills needed to create effective systems for care delivery."

Under the auspices of the CIR PEI QI Innovation Institute, the QI Clinics will provide residents at Harlem Hospital Center and Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center with the knowledge, skills, and professional development required to champion quality improvement and patient safety practices and apply their newly acquired knowledge to the development of a quality improvement project.

The Society of Hospital Medicine will be applying many of the principles from its existing programs to the new program. The organization, which represents hospitalists, has been teaching quality improvement through its Quality & Safety Educators Academy and award-winning mentorship programs to hundreds of hospitalists and hospitals nationwide.

“We are thrilled to participate in this groundbreaking program,” said SHM President Burke Kealey, MD, SFHM. “We fully expect that this program will build competencies in patient safety and quality improvement for residents and educators and – in the process – improve the quality of care delivered at these hospitals.”

SHM will also be offering quality improvement content to medical students, residents and early-career hospitalists at its annual meeting in March in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC.

Resident physicians at Harlem are eager to begin working with the SHM mentors.

"This is a wonderful learning opportunity to enable resident doctors to enhance not only our clinical skills but organizational and administrative skills that will overall impact health care in a more meaningful way,” said Harlem resident Dr. Paroma Mitra, “And we’ll become better spokepersons on direct issues that impact patients.”

About the CIR Policy and Education Initiative and the QI Innovation Institute

PEI is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the resident physician leadership to achieve a safe, effective and just health care system.

QI Innovation Institute (QII2) was launched by the CIR PEI to provide expertise, resources and support to improve the quality and safety of healthcare and foster innovation and novel solutions. The QI Innovation Institute provides a space for testing and disseminating innovations in digital curriculum development, technology and leadership development. The aim of the institute is to offer resident physicians and their teaching hospital employers additional education and training opportunities in patient safety and quality improvement, including conferences, workshop trainings, individual data and QI support, and opportunities for publishing and sharing work.

The pilot Resident QI Clinic project is funded by the House Staff Benefits Fund (HSBP) and Voluntary Hospitals House Staff Benefits Fund (VHHSBP), which provide training and education benefits to resident physicians employed in CIR hospitals.

About the Committee of Interns and Residents

The Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR/SEIU Healthcare) is the oldest and largest housestaff union in the U.S., representing more than 13,000 resident physicians in public and private teaching hospitals across the country. CIR empowers resident physicians to have a voice in their employment and training and to be advocates for their patients. For more information, visit www.cirseiu.org.