Congratulations to UNC’s Pediatric and Adult Programs in Cystic Fibrosis for receiving the 2019 Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Quality Care Award: Recognizing Outstanding QI Processes and Accomplishments. IHQI received news of this award from 2017 Improvement Scholar, Dr. Jen Goralski, who presented her project, “Cystic Fibrosis Transitions: From Pediatric to Adult Care” at IHQI’s 3rd Annual Improvement Scholars Symposium on May 11, 2017.
The award will be accepted at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference (NACFC) in Nashville, TN on November 2, 2019. Dr. Goralski presented a poster of her IHQI Improvement Scholar project at the NACFC in 2017, and the project was included as a “featured booth” at the 2017 and 2018 NACFC Quality Improvement Fairs.
Dr. Goralski shared with IHQI that, “Although QI has long been a part of our CF center workflow, my personal involvement really began with the IHQI Improvement Scholars Program project in 2017, which focused on improvements in our transition process from Pediatric to Adult CF care. That project was one of the major ones we presented during our site visit in late 2018 that led to this award.”
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation instituted the Quality Care Awards in 2008. Recipients are chosen by the CF Foundation Center Committee from the care centers visited during the previous spring. Centers that receive the honor excel at meeting the following quality improvement performance standards:
- Actively using clinical outcomes data to identify opportunities for improvement and documenting the results of improvement efforts
- Aligning improvement efforts to result in measurable improvement in important clinical outcomes
- Consistently and actively involving patients and families in identifying, designing, or implementing improvement efforts
- Employing innovative strategies to improve care processes and outcomes
- Implementing system changes that result in high reliability of care processes
IHQI is thrilled for the UNC Cystic Fibrosis Center to receive this well-deserved award!