The Department of Internal Medicine is committed to advancing the mission of quality improvement and fostering a culture of safety in our organization. One key initiatives has been to provide small grants to fund important quality and safety projects within the department. These grants, first offered in the spring of 2021, are open to teams led by department faculty with the goal of improving processes the areas of patient experience, communication with patients and families, patient outcomes, medication safety, safe hand-offs and transitions of care, diagnostic error, treatment error, patient access/flow, equitability of care delivery, social determinants of health, employee safety, and provider experience.
The second cycle of applications has just concluded. Of the many outstanding submissions, the following four projects have been selected for funding:
- “Improving Pre-transplantation Immunization for Solid Organ Transplantation Candidates through the Implementation of a Novel Pre-transplantation Immunizations Review Process” (Infectious Diseases, Cardiology, Hepatology, Nephrology, YNHH Pharmacy). Project leads: Maricar Malinis, MD, and Paul Trubin, MD.
- “Increasing Rates of Cancer Screening in a Primary Care Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in New Haven, CT” (General Internal Medicine). Project leads: Christine Krueger, MD, and Mary Clare Higgins-Chen, MD, MPH.
- “A pilot project to improve anal cancer screening uptake and time to High Resolution Anoscopy (HRA) among men who have sex with men (MSM) with HIV at YNH HIV clinics” (Infectious Diseases, Colorectal Surgery, YNHHS Care Signature). Project leads: Amit Achhra, MD, PhD, and Ritche Hao, MD.
- “Acute Hemodialysis Catheter Registry” (Nephrology). Project lead: Jeffrey Turner, MD.
Thank you to the volunteers who participated in the selection committee, Adam Ackerman, MD; Karin Adelson, MD; Lydia Aoun-Barakat, MD; Lloyd Friedman, MD; Michelle Hughes, MD; and Nitu Kashyap, MD.
The next iteration of this funding opportunity will be in the fall of 2022.
The Department of Internal Medicine at Yale is among the nation's premier departments, bringing together an elite cadre of clinicians, investigators, and educators in one of the world's top medical schools. To learn more, visit Internal Medicine.