Continuous Process Improvement Plan

Responsible Individuals

The Program Director and education coordinators are responsible for monitoring and assessing program effectiveness. Opportunities for improvement are shared with one or all of the following depending on the situation and the appropriate department: Deans Office, Pathology Department Leadership, Faculty, Education Coordinators and/or the Advisory Committee. 

Solutions are identified in team settings with action plans designated to the appropriate parties as determined by the team. Successfulness is monitored by the Program Director and shared back to the groups involved. Should further improvements be warranted, the process begins again and may escalate to a higher level of leadership as necessary. 

CPI Plan

a. Through continuous communication between the program director, students, faculty, and education coordinators the need for improvement is identified and solutions are discussed and implemented. Success is measured and shared with the relevant groups or individuals. Examples of continuous communication in the program are:

• Emails exchanged between the program director; students; course directors (faculty); didactic faculty; and medical technologist specialists (education coordinators).
• Routine discussions with the student body before or after lecture.
• Quarterly meetings with department leadership and faculty. Updates on student progress, outcomes, and program assessments are shared. Open dialogue is encouraged with sharing of ideas and potential improvements. 
• Real time meetings between the program director; faculty; education coordinators; and students as needed.

b. Mid-semester Advisement- 1:1 advisement meetings between the program director and each student are held in the fall and spring semesters.  Feedback from students is collected. These findings are assessed and improvements made suitable for the situation. When appropriate this information is shared confidentially with the relevant group/s either immediately when the situation calls for it; or at the next quarterly meeting. 

c. Students grades in clinical rotation and examinations are available to clinical and didactic faculty in real time in the BlackBoard Learning Management system. All grades for the program are continually evaluated during the semester by clinical and didactic faculty. If there are issues with academic performance, the Program Director and faculty discuss an action plan and the Program Director meets with the student to discuss and advise with the intention of improving the learning outcome. At the end of the academic year, outcomes are reviewed with clinical and didactic faulty. 

d. July-August: post-graduation assessments and benchmarks are collected, shared and analyzed by the clinical and didactic faculty. Outcomes measured are: graduation rates; board exam results; and employment data. In the event that gaps are identified, action plans are created. 

e. Annually-the data (and applicable action plans) described in number 4 above are provided to the Advisory Board with opportunities for comment and feedback. The Program Director is responsible for ensuring that next steps are taken and brings any resource requests that result from the Advisory Board Meeting through the financial and allocation processes. The optimizations that result will be measured and shared in the next Advisory Board Meeting. 

f. Advisory Board meetings are scheduled annually in the first quarter of the calendar year to review program outcomes and the effectiveness of improvements implemented in the previous year.

Performance and Outcome Measures

•    Academic performance on lecture exams and projects; final grades
•    Clinical rotation competencies and professional behavior/affective domain assessments, quizzes and assignments; 
•    Surveys of current and former students; 
•    Faculty feedback; 
•    Board of registry scores; 
•    And graduate placements

Outcome Goals of the Program

•    Graduation Rate: 85%
•    ASCP Certification MLS Exam Pass Rate within a year after graduation: 85%
•    Graduation Rate/Second Half of the Program (January 1st): 90%
•    Employment/Graduate School/Placement Rate of Graduates (of those that remain in contact): 85%