QI-S Committee Update November 2021

Our PCICS Quality Improvement and Safety (QI-S) Committee is excited about various upcoming initiatives and projects! Our Committee welcomed three new members this year, including Kevin Hummel, MD (Boston Children’s Hospital), Rambod Amirnovin, MD, and Catherine Baxter, MSN (Levine Children’s Hospital). We are excited by their enthusiasm and new contributions to the Committee! Melina Handley, DNP, is set to complete her term as Co-Chair at the 2021 annual meeting. We are in the process of vetting applicants to move into a new Co-Chair role. We appreciate all the work Melina has done with this Committee, and we look forward to new changes with our future leaders.
Our QI-S Committee continues to have three active sub-committees, including Education (led by Melissa Winder, NP), Resource and Outreach (led by Melissa Smith-Parrish, MD), and Research and Development (led by Marissa Brunetti, MD). The Education Committee is hard at work developing valuable QI resources that will soon be made available on the PCICS Member website (under the “Resources” tab). These resources will include quality content, curriculum, and roadmaps aimed at helping to formulate, develop, and execute QI projects. We hope these resources will prove to be very valuable for our members, and an announcement will be made once they are available.
Our Research and Development team will soon be sending out a survey to understand and discern different institutions’ quality processes and practices. We believe this will lend itself to interesting data collection and may ultimately improve best practices. Thank you, in advance, for your participation!
Last but not least, our Resource and Outreach team is partnering with our Education team and Amy Florez, DNP to develop a Quality Improvement Learning and Thinktank (QILT) session. The session will highlight novel quality initiatives at different institutions, with an opportunity for brainstorming, guidance, and mentorship. If you are in the process of starting a new QI project, keep an eye out for an opportunity to participate in this exciting new venture.
Our QI-S Committee is always open to new ideas and suggestions, so please feel free to contact me (Dana) or Melina with anything! We hope everyone continues to stay safe, healthy, and sane as we continue to navigate the realities of the world and our new “Zoom” culture.

Melina Handley, DNP
Cardiac ICU APP Supervisor
Cardiac ICU Nurse Practitioner
Seattle Children’s Hospital
Seattle, WA, USA

Dana Mueller, MD
Pediatric Cardiac Intensivist
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology
University of California San Diego School of Medicine
Rady Children’s Hospital
San Diego, CA, USA

