Quality Improvement

The UW Department of Family Medicine (DFM) is deeply committed to providing the best possible clinical care to support the health and wellbeing of our patients. The department demonstrated this commitment as early as 1996 when it hired a full-time quality improvement (QI) director to support and improve patient care, and to lead QI education. The department also created a Clinical Data Warehouse to provide storage of and access to data for faculty and staff. Creation of such a system demonstrates the forward thinking and dedication of the department to quality measurement.

Today, DFM continues to show its dedication to quality by serving as a leader in UW Health improvement initiatives.

• DFM was a leader in the Diabetes Initiative, developing processes and tools to identify patients with diabetes and help them get needed lab tests or other appropriate care.
• DFM was the first to launch Practice Improvement (PI) Rounds in its residency clinics, which then spread to all family medicine clinics and now pediatrics.
• As part of the organization's Primary Care Redesign, several DFM clinics (Belleville, Odana Atrium and Monona) participated in the pilot phase of a Microsystems approach to improving care.
• Eau Claire and Augusta family medicine clinics were among the first to become nationally recognized medical homes.
• The department's foundational work on Statewide Practice Improvement Curriculum for Everyone (SPICE) helps to inform teams developing the UW Health Improvement Network (UWHIN). The UWHIN is a comprehensive guide to performance improvement that will build the foundation for a culture of continuous improvement at UW Health through a common language and standardized approach. The UWHIN includes a set ofguiding principles, an improvement skills education program and the organization structures and processes that result in the necessary framework to ensure sustained outcomes.

In 2010, quality staff from DFM, UW Medical Foundation and UW Hospitals and Clinics collaborated to form the UW Health Quality, Safety and Innovation (QSI) team. While the organization as a whole moves to align and enhance its improvement efforts, quality staff still attends to the unique needs of the department. Ongoing DFM QI efforts include:

• Support to clinics focused on evidence-based standards of care and known effective strategies for change
• Work on data alignment and a department dashboard
• Individual faculty evaluation reports
• James E. Davis Award for Quality Improvement
• Improvement priorities driven by performance measurement of clinical outcomes, practice activity and patient satisfaction

Related Links

• DFM Annual Report
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• National Committee for Quality Assurance
• Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality