One: Professional Standing
PQI: What Is It and What Do You Need To Do? (Dr. Pina Sanelli, ASNR May 2009)
Component Four: Practice Quality Improvement
Please note: The ABR's published articles on PQI for diagnostic radiologists are available here.
The ABR's Practice Quality Improvement (PQI) program addresses Part IV requirements. For diagnostic radiology, five categories of PQI projects have been defined:
Patient safety
Accuracy of interpretation
Report timeliness
Practice guidelines and technical standards
Referring physician surveys
Each diagnostic radiologist decides on a project in one of these categories, working as an individual, within a department or a group, or associated with a national radiology society.
The first year
During the first year diplomates must acquire knowledge concerning quality improvement. The overarching reasons for PQI are to improve the quality of care delivered, reduce errors, and improve safety. There are many opportunities to learn about how to do this.
Please click here for additional information on PQI guidelines.
By the end of the first year, each diplomate must complete an attestation statement on his/her personal database (PDB) indicating that the diplomate has learned about the concepts and tools of practice quality improvement. Examples of program resources that you may find helpful in learning about quality improvement include:
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The overarching reasons for PQI are to improve the quality of care delivered, reduce errors, and improve safety. |
Many helpful reading resources on PQI are available, including the ABR's published articles for diagnostic radiologists.
See the list here.
By the beginning of the second year you must have selected a project that is relevant to your practice, is achievable in a practice setting, produces measurable results that are suitable for repeated measurements, and that is able to sffect quality improvement. The ABR is partnering with radiology societies to develop PQI products that will be qualified and approved by the ABR. Thus, each individual will need to choose a project as an individual, or associated with a department, group, institution, or radiology society.
The steps in the PQI project process are:
- Learn about the PQI process during year one.
- Select project and metrics.
- Collect baseline data.
- Analyze the data.
- Create an improvement plan.
- Collect data, compare to initial data, and summarize the results.
Please click to access your PDB.
