Creating a quality improvement plan can seem daunting to many, but it is vital for value-based care and improved patient quality. PQA’s Medication Use Quality continuing education program course, "Quality Improvement Foundation," was designed to provide realistic approaches to implementing a quality improvement plan in a variety of settings.

PQA’s Director of Education, Amanda Ryan, PharmD, BCGP, CPHQ, and Director of Performance Measurement, Carolyn Lockwood, RN, MSN, open the course with “Creating a Quality Improvement Plan,” which give participants a greater understanding of the Model for Improvement, including three key questions to ask when beginning a quality improvement project. They also share the importance of applying quality improvement principles in the value-based health care environment, and examples of how practical tools are used in real-world scenarios to improve medication use quality. 

You'll also hear from experts in ambulatory care, the payor space and community pharmacy on interventions to improve care. They provide in-depth and detailed evidence-based interventions at the patient level to optimize care and identify ways front-line practitioners can optimize care through quality improvement activities. Each speaker provides real-world case studies and examples.

Kaitlyn Galan, PharmD, Director of Clinical Pharmacy, and Nathan Rouse, PharmD, Director of Pharmacy Services, at Premise Health, address improvement goals and, in turn, what changes will result in improvement through the lens of ambulatory care.

Hannah Lee-Brown, PharmD, RPh, CPHQ, Director, Pharmacy Benefits at Health First, addresses how often the problems and solutions are not clearly defined for patients in the payor space. Medication is expensive, so payors should assist members in overcoming a financial barrier to care access​.

Matt Haley, Program Manager at Amazon Pharmacy/PillPack, asks community pharmacists, "How do we solve this problem for patients?" and "What's the opportunity for those in the community pharmacy setting to intervene?" He shares examples of services offered to meet the needs of specific patient populations.

Amina Abubakar, PharmD, AAHIVP, Chief Executive Officer of Avant Pharmacy, and Wellness and Josh Young, PharmD, Chief Pharmacy Officer at Troy Medicare, address how to implement measures in practice to inform the delivery and evaluation of care. The two discuss how performance measures can impact patient care and foster innovation, how population-based evaluation can impact direct patient care and how performance measures are used retrospectively to identify prospective opportunities.

Five additional courses are available now in the PQA Education Center.

• Healthcare Quality Foundations
• Measurement Program Foundations
• Measuring Quality to Improve HIV Care
• Equity and Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) in Medication Use Quality
• Special Topics Impacting Quality

The cost per course is between $59 and $79, and PQA members receive a 50% discount. Information on the member discounts can be found in the Member Resources Library. More courses and the entire certificate program will be added throughout the summer.

For additional information, group purchasing opportunities or questions on the program, contact PQA's education team at [email protected].