In the following essay, Sigal Israilov, a student at the City of New York Macaulay Honors College and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, describes her work on a team that improved the discharge process at Mount Sinai Medical Center — leading to a 73 percent increase in discharges before noon. If you're interested in leading your own quality improvement initiative, check out the IHI Open School Practicum — a guide to applying quality improvement in your own local project. (Note This ess ... read full post

Sometimes, jet lag is worth it. Last week, a few of the Open School team returned home from London after attending the 20th Annual International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare. We connected with more than 100 students, attended some dynamic presentations, and even found a little time to check out some sights. (Note Harrods — the 5-acre store famous for selling all things to all people — was both wonderful and intimidating.) All those things were worth the jet lag. We also had an oppor ... read full post

This year, the IHI Open School launched our very first course on health equity — a small step toward the Institute of Medicine’s aim to make care equitable for all people. The course was the result of work by the IHI Diversity and Inclusion Council, co-chaired by Alex Anderson, a researcher on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Innovation Team. We asked Alex five questions to learn more about how the course came about, how he became an advocate for diversity and equity as a white man, an ... read full post

Don Tyson, RN, PhD, is Associate Professor of Nursing and Director of the Master of Science in Nursing Program at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA, USA. Tyson uses the IHI Open School courses in his final semester nursing course on leadership and in his graduate-level patient safety and quality improvement (QI) courses. We asked him a few questions to understand how he uses the courses and the results he’s seen. “I grew up in a culture of blame, but I teach a safety culture,” Tys ... read full post