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Derrick Henry, M.D., third year resident in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

July 15, 2020

Orthopaedic Surgery Resident delivers UAMS’ Top Presentation During Virtual Quality Improvement Conference

July 15, 2020 | Derrick Henry, M.D., a third-year resident in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery gave UAMS’ top presentation during the UAMS Office of Interprofessional Education’s second annual Quality Improvement for Advanced Learners Program (QIALP) conference held virtually on June 24th via Zoom.

QIALP is an 8-9-month quality improvement (QI) program designed to train advanced learners, such as residents and fellows to work effectively on interprofessional quality improvement project teams (each with two faculty facilitators) while using quality improvement science methodology. At the conclusion of the course, top teams from each institution—UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH), Baptist Health, and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Tyler— are selected to present their projects during the conference.
Henry’s presentation, “Orthopedic Add-on Case Delays, a Quality Improvement Project,” focused on delays in the operating room, specifically those with urgent or emergent orthopaedic cases. Henry worked with David Kelley, D.O., assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, as well as orthopaedic surgery faculty members Simon Mears, M.D., Ph.D., and Steven Cherney, M.D., on the project.

He found three major causes for the delays — communication errors from anesthesia, orthopaedics, or medicine; communication errors from ancillary staff; and logistical errors. Over six months, UAMS saw 130 case delays with 13% as a result of communication errors from anesthesia, orthopaedics or medicine. He focused his improvement efforts on that area, and results from the newly implemented changes are still being compiled, due to the decrease in surgical cases because of COVID-19 and the new potential delays related to COVID-19 preoperative testing requirements.