IMPROVING OUTCOMES

42% Reduction in Readmission Rate in Medical Patients

IMPROVING OUTCOMES

Reduced no-show rate from 37% to 16% amongst high-risk patients living with HIV.

CREATING THE SCIENCE

Handshake Stewardship Program becomes National Standard for Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

The Joint Commission

IMPROVING OUTCOMES

48% Reduction in 1-year Mortality in Hip Fracture Patients

IMPROVING OUTCOMES

$2 Million Annual Reduction in Antibiotic Costs

IMPROVING OUTCOMES

$3 Million Annual Savings with Earlier Palliative Care Intervention

The mission of the Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety & Efficiency is to transform through discovery, improvement, and spread, the people and processes that serve our patients.

Transformation, Not Just Education

At IHQSE our overarching goal is to fundamentally improve the care provided to patients by developing people, improving care processes and building higher-achieving organizations. 



In other words, our goal is to transform:

to transform

INDIVIDUALS

We develop the capacity of frontline clinicians to drive change.

to transform

PROCESSES

We drive improvements in clinical care processes, leading to better outcomes.

to transform

ORGANIZATIONS

 We help build higher-performing systems through sustained changes.



Results that Matter

Our formula for transformation combines expert training, intensive, tailored coaching, a deep catalog of successful projects to tap into, and a relentless drive for outcomes.

500+ qi/ps projects completed
$200 million in reduced inefficiencies
200K patients impacted
150+ Graduates in Quality or Health System Leadership Positions
2 to 5 improvement in CMS star rating

*IHQSE supported improvement at the University of Colorado Hospital


IHQSE Newsroom


For over a decade, our dedicated faculty have built an integrated set of programs aimed at developing programmatic leaders in quality, creating high-quality, safe and efficient clinical care processes and, ultimately, driving profound organization-level improvements.  Here are just a few of our recent successes. 

For more, please see our
newsroom.

Pediatrci Quality and Safety Journal

Expediting Care of Fast-track Patients through a Pediatric Emergency Department

IHQSE graduate Dr. Daniel Lam is lead author on this publication in Pediatric Quality & Safety which discusses the implementation and outcomes of a fast-track pathway called "Supertrack" in a pediatric emergency department. Fast-track models decrease patient crowding in emergency departments (EDs) by redirecting low-acuity patients to an expedited care pathway. This intervention resulted in improved flow of "Supertrack" patients in addition to decreased length of stays and increased timely discharges.
Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Fast Track Improves Patient Flow and Wait Times in the Pediatric Urgent Care

IHQSE faculty member Dr. Sandra Spencer and a team quality improvement experts at Children’s Hospital Colorado developed a novel fast-track model, typically seen in emergency departments, and implemented it in urgent care. The initiative resulted in a 74% reduction in door-to-provider time and 36% reduction in urgent care length of stay. The fast-track process also continued to function and reduce door-to-provider and urgent care length of stay times during a large volume surge. Improvements in these metrics for higher acuity patients in the co-located emergency department were also observed. The results of this QI project suggest that a FT model can improve efficiency in an appropriately selected UC setting.
Psychiatric Services Logo

Leveraging Patient-Reported Outcome Measures to Improve Mental Health Care

Using patient-reported outcome measures to guide clinical care is associated with improved outcomes and widely regarded as a best practice in mental health. However, many systems have struggled to routinely adopt the practice. In an article in Psychiatric Services, IHQSE faculty, alumni, and members of the University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry describe how they used technology to address major barriers to using this best practice in their design and implementation of the Measurement-Assisted Care (MAC) program. In MAC, patient-reported outcome measures are automatically attached to patient eCheck-in and clinician documentation templates nudge clinicians to view and discuss the responses during visits. MAC increased the availability of patient-reported outcome measures from 5% to 60%+ of patient visits with more than 90% of clinicians reporting the information was useful.
Showing 5 - 8 of 68 results

Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety and Efficiency (IHQSE)

CU Anschutz

Leprino Building

12401 E. 17th Avenue

Mail Stop L963

Aurora, CO 80045


IHQSE@cuanschutz.edu

CMS Login