The NCPIQE (NC Physician Institute for Quality Enhancement) is a program within the NCMS Foundation that establishes an infrastructure and resources to support Quality Improvement processes for specialty medical care in North Carolina.  The NCPIQE will collaborate with the NC Center for Hospital Quality and Patient Safety (please see http://www.ncqualitycenter.org/) to provide support to physicians as Champions for Quality Improvement in their practice environment.  NCPIQE will work with physicians to participate in Care Registries, identify improvement opportunities from these registries and other data sources, develop problem statements and create project teams to develop, test and implement process improvements.   

NCPIQE will recruit three Orthopedic Surgeons as QI Fellows. The goal of the QI Fellows program is to demonstrate that involving physicians as Champions in Quality Improvement will improve the quality of care provided.  Prospective Fellows should demonstrate interest in developing their skills in clinical quality improvement and be willing to commit to the necessary education and participation in Quality Improvement activities to enhance the quality of specialty medical care in North Carolina.  Training costs will be paid by the NCMS Foundation, and physicians will be compensated on a predetermined per diem basis. Ideally, Surgical Fellows will bring their surgical teams to the training as well.  Training expenses for surgical team members is available as well. 

Funding for this project was provided by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation. For more information, or if you would like to submit your name or the name of a colleague for consideration, please contact Amy Dunatov at [email protected].