Quality Improvement at UNC

Hospital Quality and Innovation (HQI) leads system-wide clinical quality, patient safety improvement and analytic initiatives. HQI supports developing and achieving organizational quality goals and sharing of best practices at all UNC system hospitals. For more information you can email hqi@unchealth.unc.edu. 

Operational Efficiency (OE) serves to build UNC Health Care’s operational excellence as a lean healthcare organization through training and coaching leaders, providers and staff on the application of the UNC Health Care Improvement System. The UNC Health Care Improvement System is built on a foundation of lean, with a focus on respect for people and the relentless pursuit of waste reduction to provide more value-add care to patients. OE partners with operational and clinical leadership to identify opportunities for improvement and bring technical, change management and coaching expertise to help guide developing a culture of continuous improvement. OE provides training programs for Yellow Belt, Blue Belt, Purple Belt and Kaizen Coach. For more information you can email oe@unchealth.unc.edu.

UNC Health Alliance’s PQI team helps providers, clinics and staff transform care delivery by providing meaningful analytics and reporting, and maximizes patient health through quality improvement coaching and clinical implementation coaching. For more information you can email Practice Quality & Innovation. 

Center for Pharmacy Excellence supports UNC Health Pharmacy, systemwide. Their mission is to improve Pharmacy’s ability to care for patients and serve customers by aligning strategy with operations and driving continuous improvement initiatives. Their vision is to be the catalyst for innovation and best practice-driven transformation in the One Pharmacy Community. For more information you can email Center for Pharmacy Excellence

Care Redesign is a system-wide initiative that promotes high-value care through the development and implementation of clinical pathways. By connecting clinicians and hospitals, and using best practices and evidence-based care, Care Redesign’s mission is to reduce unwarranted clinical variation across the system. For more information you can email pathways@unchealth.unc.edu.

The Quality and Clinical Operations Council prioritizes improvement and safety initiatives and goals at UNC Medical Center. The council facilitates, coordinates and integrates activities consistent with these goals. For more information you can email Erin Burgess .

The Office of Quality Excellence enables higher quality and safer patient care by partnering with health care professionals to drive process improvements, resulting in better health outcomes for patients. OQE performs several functions across the medical center, including: team/project leadership and facilitation, process analysis, improvement and redesign, clinical outcomes measurement, analysis and reporting, reporting of hospital quality measures and participation in surgical, cancer and other registries, and monitoring and reporting of organizational goals for quality. 

The Risk Management department is dedicated to improving patient safety and mitigating UNC Health Care’s risks by implementing proactive risk management strategies that effectively identify and manage risks. Risk Management provides several services, including the management of the patient safety event reporting system (SAFE), education on risk management issues, and collaboration with other quality, patient safety, and performance improvement colleagues to implement interventions and monitor their effectiveness.

The Center for Nursing Excellence supports nursing quality and research at UNC Hospitals through collaboration, innovation and translation. CNE provides quality coaching support, nursing quality data, research support, the integration of components of the ANCC Magnet Program to reflect nursing and organizational excellence, and communications services (including professional photography and video production as well as professional poster support). For more information you can email Center for Nursing Excellence

The Division of Healthcare Engineering provides operations improvement (including lean, event reporting and outpatient services goals), research, education and training to support a culture and infrastructure for continuous improvement.  For more information you can email lukasz_mazur@med.unc.edu

Management of quality improvement (QI) and safety programs within the neurosciences at UNC is a collaborative effort between the UNC Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology. Please contact Kathleen Bradford, MD or Casey Olm-Shipman, MD for more information.

The UNC Department of Pediatrics formed The Children’s Improvement Council to emphasize safe and high-quality patient care as the focus of their clinical care mission. The UNC Department of Pediatrics Quality and Safety Program provides the basic resources needed to conduct a successful quality improvement initiative.

The North Carolina Women’s Hospital is involved in several quality improvement initiatives. If you are interested in learning more about Lean in Women’s Hospital, want to get involved in their projects or have ideas for future projects, for more information you can email Michelle Swanson. 

A patient and family advisory council typically consists of staff, former patients, family and community members who work together to support and promote patient and family-centered care. You can visit the NC Cancer Hospital’s Patient and Family Advisory Board or the NC Children’s Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Board for additional information.