Continuous Quality Improvement

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is an ongoing cycle of collecting and evaluating data aimed at supporting educational program improvement, contributing to positive outcomes to address student questions and concerns, and meeting the Liaison for Medical Education (LCME) accreditation requirement adopted from the LCME’s Functions and Structure of a Medical School:

Element 1.1: Strategic Planning and Continuous Quality Improvement

“A medical school engages in ongoing strategic planning and continuous quality improvement processes that establish its short and long-term programmatic goals, result in the achievement of measurable outcomes that are used to improve educational program quality, and ensure effective monitoring of the medical education program’s compliance with accreditation standards."

Areas of monitoring that form the basis for continuous quality improvement (CQI) efforts are based on the categories outlined within the LCME (2016) white paper, Implementing a System for Monitoring Performance in LCME Accreditation Standards.

These criteria include:

  • Elements that pose accreditation risks based on prior LCME citations,
  • Elements that include language that monitoring is required or involve a regularly-occurring process that may be "prone to slippage",
  • New elements or elements where LCME expectations have evolved,
  • Elements that include policies that must be congruent with current operations, and
  • Elements that directly or indirectly affect the core operations of the school.

Resources

Contact

Michael Uhrbrock

Michael Uhrbrock
Continuous Quality Improvement Manager
UTRGV School of Medicine
Email: Michael.Uhrbrock@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 296-1281