During the school’s recent orientation, students engaged in program specific activities and then gathered for a noontime luncheon on quality expectations with Glenn Fosdick, president and CEO of UNMC’s hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center.

“Quality in health care will not go away,” Fosdick said.

The Nebraska Medical Center, he said, fosters a culture focused on quality at all levels of the organization.

To meet its goals, hospital leaders have adopted such programs as:

• Six Sigma, a statistics-driven approach to quality control;
• Crew Resource Management, team management concepts adopted from the airline industry;
• A new barcode bedside monitoring system to reduce medication errors; and
• A checklist to reduce hospital infection rates.

Fosdick challenged each allied health student to become a leader in best practices and systems that improve quality.

Fosdick’s message dovetails with the SAHP’s goals, said Kyle Meyer, Ph.D., associate dean of the SAHP.