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There were plenty of smiles and handshakes at the Teachers of Quality Academy (TQA) 7.0 Recognition Ceremony on Sept. 30, as 37 graduates from the most recent TQA cohort celebrated successful completion of the program alongside ECU Health and Brody School of Medicine leaders.

TQA is a professional development program for health care leaders designed to fundamentally change care delivery through a curriculum focused on building knowledge and skills in Health Systems Science which comprehensively explores how health care is delivered. Participants engage in advanced learning in quality improvement, patient safety and team leadership, develop improvement projects to apply these skills across the health system, teach others in their environment about these concepts and evaluate the outcomes of improvement interventions. Leading by example, TQA participants promote a culture of quality and safety across the enterprise.

TQA Recognition Ceremony

This year’s program graduates came from multiple areas of expertise and locations, including ECU Health Physicians, ECU Health Medical Center, ECU Health North Hospital, ECU Health Chowan Hospital and Contentnea Health. Additionally, the cohort includes participants from ECU Health’s Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, ECU Health’s Administrative Fellowship Program and the MedServ Fellowship Program.

“As an academic health care organization, it’s incredibly gratifying to see educational programming like TQA woven into ECU Health and Brody’s culture of quality improvement,” said Dr. Michael Waldrum, ECU Health CEO and dean of Brody. “You can see and feel the pride that people take in improving quality, and that has real tangible impacts on patients who can experience better health and wellness as a result. This cohort and these graduates are an example of our quality improvement culture which TQA has helped build.”

According to Dr. Jennifer Sutter, TQA physician director, the diverse, multidisciplinary class represented the ultimate goal of the program: to further knowledge and instill principles that help health care professionals across eastern North Carolina improve quality on behalf of the patients they serve.

“It is exciting for us as program leaders recognize and celebrate these dedicated health care professionals for successfully completing TQA,” Sutter said. “Those of us involved in the program have been fortunate to witness incredible growth from our 7.0 cohort. We could not be more proud of what they’ve accomplished and how they will use their knowledge and skills to help further high-quality care in their individual clinical setting through out eastern North Carolina.”

The seventh iteration of the program was comprised of 12 half-day sessions alternating concepts of leadership development and new competencies of Health Systems Science, including patient safety, quality improvement, systems thinking, population health and team-based care. Each learning session also emphasized wellness topics enabling participants to engage in supplemental activities to further enhance the experience of life while at work. The year-long program culminated in each participant completing a comprehensive quality improvement project in their area of focus.

“As part of TQA, I had the honor of partnering with leaders from our community hospitals—North, Chowan, and the Medical Center—all of whom shared a commitment to serving our community,” said ECU Health administrative fellow Madison Stevens, a member of the 7.0 cohort. “The sessions empowered us to explore and refine our leadership philosophies, building a strong foundation rooted in quality improvement, professional growth, and innovation. The program has equipped me with the tools to become an effective and open-minded leader. In our project, my team focused on post-event debriefing in the emergency department, prioritizing the well-being of our team members alongside clinical learning to help teams navigate high-stress situations and improve patient care outcomes. We look forward to sharing our results and broadening our focus on quality improvement to provide exceptional patient care.”

The TQA curriculum is also designed around experiences that span the continuum of care in multiple areas of clinical focus which enables participants to be better prepared to meet real-world challenges. This intentional design, according to ECU Health Chief Quality Officer and Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Niti Armistead, enables TQA graduates to immediately help drive quality improvements in the clinical environment.

“TQA is so important because it creates a community of interdisciplinary professionals committed to improving quality both here at ECU Health and beyond,” Dr. Armistead said. “Quality is a critical component of our quintuple aim and the work being done by TQA program leaders and participants directly ties to our ability to improve the health and well-being of the region. Through TQA, participants learn by doing and acquire collaborative problem resolution skills to drive continuous improvement.”