History

The Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety (or “CHIPS”) began in 2009 with a donation from the Philadelphia Antiques Show to the Department of Medicine within the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. The vision was to create a center that would become the academic home for quality improvement and patient safety work. It began with one fellow (James Reilly MD MSHP) and one new interprofessional course in healthcare quality improvement which was a partnership between two faculty in the school of medicine and nursing (Jennifer Myers MD and Kathleen Burke MSN, Ph.D.). In 2016, a formal partnership with CHOP was made with the addition of Kathy Shaw, MD MSCE as co-director for the center.

Since then, CHIPS has grown to provide a suite of educational training programs in healthcare quality and patient safety including a master’s program, a certificate program, a concentration in Penn’s Masters of Science in Health Policy Research Program, and opportunities for students and residents. The Center sponsors a monthly works-in-progress session and professional development workshops for faculty and staff throughout the Penn Medicine and CHOP healthcare systems with the goal of building a community.

Through all of its work, CHIPS is dedicated to improving the quality and safety of healthcare for patients and patient populations across the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. We would like to thank Penn Medicine, CHOP, and the Laffey-McHugh Foundation who support our center and make the work we do possible.