An Analysis of Quality Improvement Education at US Colleges of Pharmacy

Abstract

<b>Objective.</b> Analyze quality improvement (QI) education across US pharmacy programs. <b>Methods.</b> This was a two stage cross-sectional study that inspected each accredited school website for published QI curriculum or related content, and e-mailed a questionnaire to each school asking about QI curriculum or content. <i>T</i>-test and chi square were used for analysis with an alpha a priori set at .05. <b>Results.</b> Sixty responses (47% response rate) revealed the least-covered QI topics: quality dashboards /sentinel systems (30%); six-sigma or other QI methodologies (45%); safety and quality measures (57%); Medicare Star measures and payment incentives (58%); and how to implement changes to improve quality (60%). More private institutions covered Adverse Drug Events than public institutions and required a dedicated QI class; however, required QI projects were more often reported by public institutions. <b>Conclusion.</b> Despite the need for pharmacists to understand QI, it is not covered well in school curricula.