Current RQI Projects

A description of some of our current RQI projects can be found below. If you have interest in any of these projects or have RQI ideas, we’d love to work with you!

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Medical Education Training Videos

The “DOCS Medical Training Series” is a collaborative effort between the DOCS RQI staff and health fair station managers. This series of online training modules consists of videos and quizzes aimed at better preparing student volunteers in their roles at the annual health fairs. Additionally, the modules allow more time for hands-on practice during in-person training sessions and the opportunity for community partners to engage students and provide more context of the communities in which we host health fairs. The project is ongoing and the ultimate goal is to have up and running training modules for all stations hosted at the DOCS health fairs by the end of this year.

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DOCS RedCap Analysis

In an effort to improve our DOCS model, we have begun a comprehensive review of our DOCS RedCap database, identifying a variety of relevant metrics for evaluation. Metrics include demographics, healthcare access (insurance status, access to primary care), and risk (Cardiovascular and Diabetes risk, risk for various cancers, etc.). These analyses can begin to teach us a lot about DOCS and our patient population: Are we reaching the patients we hope to reach in communities? What are the most pressing challenges our patients face? Are patients that return on a yearly basis improving or getting worse? These are just some of the questions we can begin to answer in an ongoing review of our DOCS RedCap data.

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RMC Healthcare Access

At the Regional Medical Campus up in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, we are working on creating maps for free and low-cost healthcare resources within these counties, as well as other resources that patients may find helpful, mirroring the existing maps we have for SJB and health fair patients on the Miami main campus. This project is ongoing. We are also supporting other DOCS projects at the RMC, including Stonybrook, the Guatemalan Mayan Center, and the Caridad free clinic.

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Patient Navigation Program

The patient navigation program was created in 2016 as an RQI effort to improve the follow up of patients seen at DOCS health fairs who met certain high-risk criteria and needed urgent follow up health care. The patient navigation program now happens for all health fairs and exists as part of the Longitudinal Health Access Initiative. Patient navigators are trained in motivational interviewing, SMART goal setting, barriers to health care, health insurance, and navigating the health care system to help patients schedule and attend follow up appointments via periodic one-on-one phone calls.

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Patient Education Video Modules

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, students are working on online health education materials to connect with our patient population virtually. This forthcoming series of educational infographics, video modules, and live video counseling with physicians is aimed at providing our remote patient population with the same level of DOCS health education typically experienced at our monthly fairs. The modules also serve to allow our students to gain experience with effective patient counseling while building a solid knowledge base about how to screen and prevent many common diseases and health burdens.

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Social Needs Resource Database

Expanding upon the social needs database currently used at our SJB clinic, RQI members are now locating and verifying social needs resources in 10 key domains that are known to be upstream determinants of patient health outcomes. By creating a wider database of resources such as food banks, financial support, and job training, we hope to incorporate social needs resource counseling into our eventual health fair model as well as coordinating our social needs screening protocol throughout our clinics and fairs.

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