Dr. McIlraith’s advice for QI success is to know the problem you are trying to solve so that you can tell if the solution you implement is having the desired impact and also to measure the impact of that solution using the SMART goals.
For those who hope to follow a quality improvement career path to leadership, he strongly recommends the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Leadership Academies, which are excellent resources for mentorship, networking, and leadership training through SHM.
Ultimately, Dr. McIlraith stressed the importance of mentoring team members for development as future QI leaders. If mentoring relationships are successful, then when the time comes for a QI veteran to “step back” to focus more on family or take a different career path, there will be others who can step in and keep the quality momentum going.
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