The College of Medicine – Tucson (COM-T) prides itself in its pursuit of excellence in patient care, research, and education. In an on-going effort to improve our medical education program, our Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) system is directly linked to the expectations for educational process and outcomes as contained in Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accreditation standards to carry out improvements in a systematic way.
Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is a management philosophy that promotes the idea that, “most things can be improved.” CQI is a set of concepts, principles and methods. At the core of CQI is serial experimentation (the scientific method). The process is particularly effective in manufacturing industries and human service industries, including healthcare, but is also gaining momentum in academia, and certainly in medical education due to the new LCME accreditation Element 1.01 Strategic Planning & Continuous Quality Improvement (For the element, see Functions & Structure of a Medical School). CQI is implemented through the PDSA cycle; P is for "planning"; D is for for "do"; S is for "study" and A is for "act." The PDSA cycle is a test for change to evaluate the degree to which the change was effective. In CQI, most problems are found in processes, not in people. In other words, CQI does not seek to blame but rather to improve processes (but people need to modify the ways they think and act).
While compliance with accreditation requirements is the minimum benchmark, in context of CQI, quality is defined as meeting and/or exceeding the expectations of those we serve. Success is achieved through meeting the needs of those we serve.
The Interim Review Process is the signature component of the CQI system for monitoring compliance with the accreditation standards and demonstrating compliance with LCME accreditation Element 1.1 Strategic Planning & Continuous Quality Improvement.