A Resident-Led Institutional Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Process

The authors used a multipronged approach to gain resident involvement in institutional quality improvement over a 3-year period; the initiative included a survey, a retreat, workgroups, a resurvey, and another retreat. Survey results (from 2007 compared with those of 2010) demonstrated significant improvement in almost all the top issues concerning patient safety for residents-emergency department boarding and crowding, adequacy of patient flow through the institution, adequacy of nursing and technical support staffing, and laboratory specimen handling (initial overall mean concern level was 2.87, and final concern level was 2.19; P < .01). This perceived improvement in patient safety concerns for residents was associated with observable improvements in areas of high concern for hospital leaders. By surveying residents and students, prioritizing concerns, convening a hospital-wide retreat with key leaders, and implementing accountable plans, the authors have demonstrated that resident perceptions of quality and safety can help drive quality improvement and engage residents in improvement efforts at an institutional level.