2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics Graduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
Healthcare Quality and Safety
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
- Instructor(s)
- Xiuzhu Gu
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - Class
- -
- Course Code
- IEE.D436
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
This course aims at obtaining knowledge and basic skills of improving healthcare quality and patient safety, from the stakeholder perspectives of healthcare organizations, healthcare providers and patients. In addition to lectures, case studies, group work assignment (+ presentation and discussion) and debate are designed for better understanding of concepts and approach application.
Course description and aims
By the end of this course, students will be able to explain basic concepts of healthcare quality and safety; and to apply the learned approaches and techniques for improvement.
Keywords
Healthcare quality, patient safety, human factors approach, human error, safety management
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
In each class, fundamentals of related topics, approaches, methods and techniques will be lectured. Small quiz and discussion related to the topic will be performed for better understanding. In addition, group work will be assigned to enhance students' application of the learned skills and knowledge to analyze and then solve the real-world problems.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Guidance: Introduction to Healthcare Quality and Safety | Understand an overview of healthcare quality and safety, its principles and basics. |
| Class 2 | Healthcare Quality from Patient Perspective | Understand the definition and dimensions of healthcare quality, and the perceptions from patients as an important healthcare stakeholder. |
| Class 3 | Medical Competence and Patient Safety | Understand competence as individual virtue or system issue, and perfection versus the inevitability of mistake. |
| Class 4 | Safety Management and Safety Management System (SMS) | Understand the definitions of safety management and SMS, safety policy, assurance and promotion. |
| Class 5 | “Human Error” in Health Care | Understand basics of human errors and their related issues. |
| Class 6 | Safety Culture | Understand safety culture and related issues; and apply safety culture assessment to an actual setting. |
| Class 7 | Practical Tools for Creating Safety | Understand safety reporting, organizational learning, and adverse event investigation. |
| Class 8 | Accountability and Learning from Failure | Understand Just Culture as the culture of learning and accountability, the second victim and how to disclose. |
| Class 9 | New Technology Applied in Health Care | Understand the application of EMR, EHR and AI in health care, and the effects of the new technology on healthcare quality and safety. |
| Class 10 | Patient Handoff | Understand the types and tasks of patient handoff, and the quality and safety of patient handoff. |
| Class 11 | New Approach to Safety Management | Understand pros and cons of traditional approach of risk management; nature of Safety-I and Safety-II; and principles of Resilience Engineering. |
| Class 12 | Presentation of Group Work | Gain understanding of quality and safety issues, and application skills of the approaches based on group work and discussions. |
| Class 13 | Presentation of Group Work | Gain understanding of quality and safety issues, and application skills of the approaches based on group work and discussions. |
| Class 14 | Lecture by Guest Speakers | Deepen the understanding of healthcare quality and safety through the introduction of research projects by guest speakers. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to reference books and other course material.
Textbook(s)
None required.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Itoh, K. Safety Management by Human Factors Approach: From Theory to Practice. Tokyo: Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association (in Japanese).
Dekker, S. (2011). Patient Safety: A Human Factors Approach. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
Instruction manuals and course materials are provided during class.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Students' knowledge of topics in the lecture, and their ability to apply to the group work will be assessed. Short quiz/discussion 50%, group work 50%.
Full attendance is compulsory.
Related courses
- IEE.C304 ： Human Factors and Ergonomics
Prerequisites
No prerequisites.