Quoteworthy
Enhancing education of the next generation of physicians will ensure that patients continue to receive quality medical care for years to come.
Kathleen Timme and Pete Hannon

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.

TRUE Stories—Fostering a Passion for Solving Big Problems

Access to medical care isn't a given. Medical students from the Tribal, Rural, and Underserved Medical Education (TRUE) Graduate Certificate program tell us first-hand experiences that helped them build a passion for complex problem solving by experiencing big, systemic challenges up close.

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 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.

More Than "Some Other Race": Improving Race and Ethnicity Data Quality to Advance Health Equity

Accurate, self-reported race and ethnicity data is necessary to create visibility of health disparities, provide inclusive care, and improve equity of health outcomes. Community engagement director RyLee Curtis, Chief Quality Officer Sandi Gulbransen, Project Manager Kimberly Killam, Patient Experience Director Mari Ransco, Chief Medical Informatics Officer Michael Strong, and Health Sciences Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Librarian Donna Baluchi explain how University of Utah is improving data quality.

What is DNV? And Other Burning Accreditation Questions

Chief Quality Officer Sandi Gulbransen and Accreditation Manager Kemper Funk provide insight on our partnership with DNV, how accreditation contributes to the safety of our patients and staff, and what to expect during our upcoming evaluation.

Dissecting Utilization Review

Utilization Review is a necessary, but oftentimes messy process that ensures patients are receiving the most appropriate care in the most appropriate setting. Jenny Tuan, hospitalist and medical director of Utilization Review, dissects what UR is all about, including confusing gray areas and sticky pain points.

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.

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.

Quality Improvement

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

Stop Waiting and Start Working: Four Tips from the Help Desk

We all do it. We draw a blank on our password, get locked out of login, “…duo what?” and so on. And then we wait for a University of Utah Health service desk saint who makes our machine work again. To help lighten their load a bit—and make our lives easier—we asked ITS Manager Mike Madsen for his “Top 4” preventive measures to avoid a call.