Quoteworthy
By fixating on the finish line—the future, not the present—we miss opportunities to pace ourselves, push ourselves and take in the scenery along the way.
Megan Call

Most Recent
What Goldilocks Can Teach You About Problem Statements

Internal medicine residents Brian Sanders and Matt Christensen team up with senior value engineer Luca Boi to explain why investing your time honing a well-defined problem statement can pay dividends later in the ultimate success of a QI project.

Standard Work

Standard work is the most efficient way to accomplish a job quickly and accurately supported by visual guides. VA internist Sarah Hall and nurse practitioner Jamie Clinton-Lont team up with senior value engineer Luca Boi to share how they used standard work to make pain management safer for veterans.

How to Set a SMART Goal

SMART Goals are a great starting point for any project. Project management expert Kripa Kuncheria helps us organize our teams’ efforts by outlining this goal setting framework with a simple step-by-step guide to try right now.

How to Turn a Gut Feeling into a QI Project

Your gut tells you a process could be better than it is—how do you back that feeling up with hard data? Senior value engineer Luca Boi shows how undertaking a baseline analysis can jumpstart your improvement project.

5 Ways You Can Contribute to the UUHC Operational Plan

In an organization as big as U of U Health, it’s hard to know where our work fits into the big picture. System Planning Manager Cassandra Taft highlights five ways teams can meaningfully contribute to Operational Plan priorities, regardless of job role or responsibility.

Lean Tips for Holiday Pie Making

Every Thanksgiving, Accelerate’s Marcie Hopkins makes not just one, but multiple pies to enjoy. To maximize efficiency, she teamed up with Farmington manager Matt Sanford to design the perfect process. And—of course—there’s a health care application as well.

Be Mindful and Educate Yourself: Black Patient Voices

The crises of Covid-19 and police brutality have highlighted systemic racial inequity in the United States and the need to consciously dismantle the forces that cause racial health disparities. PA students Scarlett Reyes and Jocelyn Cortez brought together Black patients at the University of Utah to share their experiences. Their advice: build cultural competence and be mindful of microaggressions.

Quality Improvement

Hospitalist Ryan Murphy introduces quality improvement (QI): The systematic and continuous approach to improvement.

How to Conduct a Rapid Critical Appraisal

Performing a rapid critical appraisal helps evaluate a study for its worth by ensuring validity, meaningful data, and significance to the patient. Contributors Barb Wilson, Mary Jean Austria, and Tallie Casucci share a checklist of questions to complete a rapid critical appraisal efficiently and effectively.

How to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable

To disagree means failing to agree. Synonyms include to contradict, challenge or debate. Synonyms do not also have to include to argue, quarrel, dispute, bicker or clash. Pediatric intensivist Jared Henricksen shares the best path forward when words become clouded with emotion.

Building Our Digital Literacy

How are we building digital literacy? Chief Information Officer Donna Roach and Sr. Director of Patient Experience Mari Ransco share how using design thinking and seeing care through the eyes of our patients is a great place to start.

What Improvement Taught Me About Gardening

Every summer, senior value engineer Cindy Spangler stocks our offices with an abundance of tomatoes, zucchini, and squash. We asked her to share how improvement thinking influences her gardening. Turns out, there are parallels–learn from others, stick to your scope, and learn from the mistakes.