E-QUAL Initiatives: Enrollment Now Open!

Enrollment is open for the 2024 E-QUAL Initiatives! This is a great opportunity for residents and residency programs to engage with quality improvement at their site. Watch this webinar to learn more about this free, low-burden quality improvement and educational program that engages emergency clinicians and leverages emergency departments to improve clinical outcomes, coordinate care, and reduce costs.

More about the E-QUAL Initiatives:

Throughout the 6- to 9- month-long initiatives, champions at EDs will complete 8 to 10 short activities on an all-inclusive web-based portal. All activities are designed to be minimal effort and aligned with your EDs current QI efforts. Participation in E-QUAL can help residency programs meet requirements in the following ACGME competency categories: Patient Care, Procedural Skills & Medical Knowledge, Leadership & Professionalism, Practice-based Learning, Interpersonal & Communication Skills & Systems-based Practice Improvement.

Additionally, E-QUAL will help residency programs meet goals in Patient Safety Initiatives, Quality Improvement Activities and can help guide residents in journal club. Physicians that participate in E-QUAL can receive credits for their overall physician reimbursement score and their Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits. Since its inception, E-QUAL has resulted in over $55 million saved from fewer avoidable imaging studies and hospitalizations, 30,000 fewer patients harmed by ionizing radiation, 25,000 lives saved from better sepsis care, a 35% decline in opioids administered from the ED, and a 23% increase in alternatives to opioids prescription. For 2024, we will be offering learning collaboratives focused on stroke care, opioid and alcohol use disorder and venous thromboembolism. Questions? Email equal@acep.org.

Authors

Arjun Venkatesh, MD, MBA, MHS

Chair, Emergency Medicine

Yale University
Dr. Arjun Venkatesh is the Chair of the Yale Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Venkatesh is also an Associate Professor, Chief of the Section of Administration in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale University, and Scientist at the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. He has been funded by the NIH, AHRQ, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation to study health system outcomes and efficiency, and he is supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as co-Principal Investigator of the Emergency Quality Network (E-QUAL) and for the development of the Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings. He has received over $6 million in grant funding, published over 80 peer-reviewed papers, and is senior editor of The Evidence book series. He is a national leader within ACEP and SAEM and he serves on expert panels for the National Quality Forum (NQF), AHRQ, and CMS. His work is also funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Addiction Policy Forum to advance the quality and delivery of emergency and acute care for opioid use disorder.
Wendy Sun, MD

Instructor, Emergency Medicine

Yale University

Dr. Wendy Sun is an Administration Fellow and Instructor of Emergency Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. She is passionate about patient quality and safety, physician wellness, and health innovation. Having served as a past President of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Residents and Medical Students (SAEM RAMS) and the Resident Member on the SAEM Board of Directors, she continues to be invested in the advancement of emergency medicine through research, mentorship, education, and advocacy.
Dr. Sun earned her undergraduate degree at Columbia University in Biomedical Engineering. She subsequently obtained her Doctor of Medicine from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine where she was inducted into the Gold Humanism and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Societies. Most recently, she completed Emergency Medicine residency at Yale - New Haven Health where she served as Chief Resident. She continues to further her education as a candidate of the MBA for Executives at the Yale School of Management. A Canadian from Toronto, she now resides in New Haven.