Online Quality Management Educational Resources

We've assembled a collection of free online resources instructors can use to supplement student learning. Check back often as the list will be periodically updated with new resource links.

Note: Because direct links to resources can periodically change within an organization’s website, links to the home page of the organization have also been provided.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Training Record Set for Global Trigger Tool
The IHI Global Trigger Tool is used for measuring adverse patient events. Accompanying the instructions on how to use this tool are actual patient records (with identifiers removed). These records could be used in a classroom setting to provide students with practice in identifying adverse events. Each record has been reviewed by experienced reviewers and answers on the findings are included in the Guide for teaching purposes. Site registration is required to download the Instruction Guide and training set of patient records.
Organization website: www.ihi.org
Direct link: www.ihi.org/IHI/Topics/PatientSafety/SafetyGeneral/Tools/TrainingRecordSetforIHIGlobalTriggerTool.htm

Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School Courses for Health Professions
The IHI has several free online courses on quality management and patient safety topics. Site registration is required. Select online courses could be assigned to student to complement classroom and textbook learning.
Organization website: www.ihi.org
Direct link: www.ihi.org/IHI/Programs/IHIOpenSchool/

Collection of One-of-a-Kind Unique Performance Improvement Tools
Duke Rohe, an industrial engineer and self-described improvement ‘geek’ has assembled a collection of improvement tools he developed during his tenure as a systems improvement specialist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. Some of the tools could be adapted for classroom projects or assignments.
Organization website: www.himsssct.org
Direct link: www.himsssct.org/tools/tools.html

Online Root Cause Analysis Training
The UK National Patient Safety Agency has an online root cause analysis training toolkit. Although specific to the root cause analysis model used in the UK, it provides a good overview of adverse patient events and how to investigate and resolve root causes.
Organization website: www.npsa.nhs.uk
Direct link: www.msnpsa.nhs.uk/rcatoolkit/course/iindex.htm

FreeQuality – an online source of QI information and tools
This site is maintained by graduate students for use by business professionals worldwide. FreeQuality provides a wide variety of quality improvement information and tools.
Organization website: www.freequality.org

Healthcare Improvement Skills Center
This site includes a diverse collection of healthcare improvement learning resources, including six case-based, highly interactive learning modules. The site is intended for clinicians, however some of the learning resources could be adapted for training students with minimal clinical knowledge.
Organization website: http://improvementskills.org