PH 209 Introduction to Improvement Methods
This course develops systems thinking in health care and public health and introduces students to commonly used methods to systematically approach understanding context, testing change, and measuring improvement in a specific setting. (See the Public Health Foundation’s Core Competencies for Performance Improvement at http://www.phf.org/resourcestools/Documents/PI_Competencies_2018Jun.pdf) . This introduction is supplemented by a deeper discussion of the applications of these methods in PH 233.
The course begins with a brief consideration of the meaning of quality in public health and health care, highlighting the STEEPE and the Culturally Effective Organizations frameworks. Basics of measurement for improvement will be introduced. Considerations regarding the system level where change is proposed and the inclusion of service users in all change efforts will be discussed. Students will explore the use of common improvement “tools” which can be used in a wide variety of settings: articulation of global and specific aims using SMART criteria, process mapping (including direct observation), creation of Ishikawa (fishbone) and driver diagrams, measurement fundamentals (process, outcome, and balancing measures, including operational and conceptual definitions ), and small tests of change (PDSA cycles). A foundational improvement framework will also be introduced: Model for Improvement.
Throughout, the essential intertwining of public health and health care will be explored, with examples of how Quality Improvement (QI) methods are used in both.
0.40 Dartmouth units; (HP, P, LP, NC)
Required for Online MPH
Offered: Fall - First Year
Instructor
Tina Foster and Trinidad Tellez