Performance Improvement/Research Advisory Panel: a model for determining whether a project is a performance or quality improvement activity or research.

The determination of whether an activity is performance improvement governed by The Joint Commission standards and local hospital policy or research governed by federal regulation and requiring institutional review board (IRB) review and approval can be complex, especially in academic clinical organizations. Both processes can address scientific validity, fair participant selection, favorable risk-benefit ratio, respect for participants, and independent review. In an attempt to guide staff as to whether their project needs IRB review or not, a performance improvement/research advisory panel (PIRAP) was formed to serve two military organizations. In this article, performance improvement and quality improvement is differentiated from research as much as possible, the composition and function of PIRAP is described, and guidelines for publishing findings that support the nature of the project are provided.

Using a distance-learning program to educate staff on the Joint Commission National Patient Safety.

BACKGROUND: A motion picture expert group (MPEG) distance-learning program was created in 2003 at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC; San Antonio, Texas) on the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals. The 34 2-4-minute scripted video productions addressed the 7 goals and 13 recommendations for 2003 and 2004. For each goal, three MPEGs respectively describe sentinel events pertaining to that goal, root causes and risk-reduction strategies, and Army Medical Department and BAMC recommendations and policies. CREATING THE PROGRAM: The program entailed creating the scripts, narrating video, editing the tapes, and compressing the videos into the MPEG format. LAUNCHING THE PROGRAM: A featured MPEG was emailed weekly to over 3,000 hospital staff with a scripted endorsement and photograph of a key BAMC leader and a link to the MPEG. In addition, the MPEGs were placed on the hospital's intranet site. DISCUSSION: As the National Patient Safety Goal MPEG distance-learning program gained more recognition, different branches of the Army used the program to educate their staff on the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals. The next step is to update the distance-learning program with new MPEGs that will provide guidance on the current National Patient Safety Goals.