CQI

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI, also called Quality Assurance / Quality Improvement, or QA/QI) is an integral part of any EMS system. It helps to ensure that patients receive quality care and, if any deficiencies exist, provides a mechanism for gently correcting providers who need it. Most commercial services have some sort of CQI infrastructure in place, either through the medical director or through personnel tasked to the job, and this is an area in which college EMS services should not be complacent either.

When selecting a CQI coordinator, your service's medical director is the first person to ask. It's possible, though, that he may not be willing to take on the additional responsibility of regular CQI work. And in the small college setting, there may not be many other physicians on campus whom you can approach (the student health service would be your best bet here). If that's the case for your service, it's time to start thinking creatively.

Is there a local ambulance service that might be willing to take on CQI responsibilities for your squad? What about alumni of your service that are still in the area? If worst comes to worst, you can appoint a senior, experienced active member of your squad to do the job. When picking your CQI coordinator, keep in mind that you want someone with EMS experience who is familiar with your system. (This may rule out your medical director in some instances, but he's still a physician, and you're practicing under his license, so he gets first crack. But that doesn't mean you can't enlist someone who is active in EMS as well.)

Lastly, keep in mind that CQI is never supposed to be punitive. The purpose of the program is to make sure that your providers are delivering quality care. When deficiencies are exposed, the goal is to remediate the provider(s) in question, not punish them. For this reason, the effective CQI coordinator always remembers that he and the providers under his watch are on the same team and working toward the same goal.