SPREAD OF QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS IMPLEMENTED IN A GERIATRICS WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Abstract This project characterizes spread of quality improvement (QI) projects initiated in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Geriatric Scholars Program (GSP) workforce development program. This mixed methods study analyzes a recent cross-sectional survey of GSP participants and program-level data on participant characteristics and QI project topics. We surveyed 578 scholars who had completed all program requirements to that point, and still worked for VA; 207 (35%) responded. The majority of respondents who had been in the program for at least six months (70%) reported sustainment of their QI project beyond initial implementation and nearly a third (30.4%) reported any spread beyond their own care team. QI project topics spanned many domains and percent of projects reporting spread varied across domains from 0% to 67%. A workforce development capstone activity in which participants demonstrate substantive and methodological competency can foster bottom-up QI activities in a large, diverse health care system.