Emergency medicine quality improvement and patient safety curriculum.

Preface All of us who have worked on this curriculum are career emergency physicians (EPs) who have become leaders with a focus on emergency medicine (EM) quality and safety. About 2 years ago, I approached my colleagues of the American College of Emergency Physicians Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (ACEP QIPS) Section and dreamed an idea of creating an EM quality and safety curriculum: an outline that would explain a topic few EPs understand. That outline would be used as a curriculum to teach our EM residents (and even our attendings, physician’s assistants, and nurse leaders) about EM quality and safety. My goal is for this curriculum to become an integral part of every EM residency program and department. We know that quality and safety in patient care does not happen by accident. We must teach these concepts to everyone on our emergency department (ED) team. The safety of our patients depends on this. I would like to thank each of the authors who spent many months on this project, along with the ACEP QIPS Section and ACEP Quality and Performance Committee. Also, I would like to thank ACEP staff Angela Franklin and Idania Lorenti for their help in getting this project to completion. I must also sincerely acknowledge the early work and ideas generated by Drs. Shari Welch and David John: their contributions clearly helped shape this article.