OhioHealth Wins National Award for Innovation in Medical Education

OhioHealth has been named the 2022 Innovation Award winner by the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers (AIAMC).

The AIAMC presents the award on an annual basis to its institutional member that best exemplifies creative and innovative approaches to medical education and research which result in better patient outcomes.

“OhioHealth Medical Education has an amazing story to tell,” Brad Gable, MD, MS, FACEP, System Medical Director, OhioHealth Simulation said.  “From our critical work in continuing education for our physicians and front-line teams, our human simulation program, 3-D printing, virtual reality and much more, we are on the cutting edge of innovation. This award is validation for the hard work our teams put in every day to continue making OhioHealth a global leader in the learning space, and we thank the AIAMC for the honor.”

OhioHealth was chosen for this honor based upon their program entitled, Resident Escape Room to Promote Quality and Patient Safety Concepts. Escape rooms have been widely used in nursing, pharmacy, and to a lesser degree resident education. The use of escape rooms to deliver patient safety and quality improvement education has been less widely reported. As a new generation becomes the primary population of medical residents, growth of hands-on experiential learning, like escape rooms, will be needed to match learner needs.

In groups of three to four, learners from all OhioHealth residency and fellowship programs completed nine puzzle escape rooms over a 15-minute period. Upon completion, a 15-minute group debrief clarified learning points from each puzzle. Following the debrief, learners responded to a standard Return on Investment in Learning questionnaire. A total of 307 of OhioHealth’s 409 residents and fellows completed the escape room education (75.1%). Learners’ self-reported confidence increased (agree/strongly agree) in their ability to: describe key aspects of quality improvement (94%), explain important aspects of patient safety (96.5%), and demonstrate the event reporting process for patient safety events (96.2%).

The institution selected for this prestigious honor must demonstrate an innovation in the following categories:

• The development and/or implementation of innovative medical education programs for residents, physicians and other staff and may include curriculum development and implementation, assessment methodologies, and/or outcomes related to medical education initiatives.
• Innovation significant themes such as provider well-being, quality improvement, population health, health disparities and/or cultural competency initiatives involving residents, physicians and other staff and related outcomes.
• The development and/or application of scientific discoveries. Areas of research may include education, health care improvement, biomedical research and/or translational research.

“What made OhioHealth’s application stand out was their creative and insightful approach to teaching the next generation of physicians,” stated AIAMC Executive Director Kimberly Pierce Burke. She continued, “They also proved that award-winning innovation can be quite affordable, as the total cost of materials for the escape room was just $94.75. Kudos to their team for this impressive work!”

About The AIAMC

The Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers is a national membership organization made up independent teaching hospitals delivering exceptional patient care through education and innovation. With nearly 80 institutional members, our size provides an environment that encourages and supports networking and collaboration. We actively develop and apply real-world solutions to thrive in the continually

changing regulatory and accreditation environment. The AIAMC has a 33-year track record of connecting graduate medical education as a strategic asset for achieving better outcomes. For more information on the AIAMC and its membership, visit www.aiamc.org.

About OhioHealth  

Based in Columbus, Ohio, OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, charitable, healthcare outreach of the United Methodist Church.  

Serving its communities since 1891, it is a family of 35,000 associates, physicians and volunteers, and a network of 12 hospitals, 200+ ambulatory sites, hospice, home-health, medical equipment and other health services spanning a 47-county area.  It has been recognized by FORTUNE as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” 14 times since 2007. 

OhioHealth hospitals include OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, OhioHealth Doctors Hospital, OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital, OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Hardin Memorial Hospital, OhioHealth Marion General Hospital, OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital, OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, OhioHealth Shelby Hospital, OhioHealth Grove City Methodist Hospital and OhioHealth Berger Hospital. For more information, please visit our website at www.ohiohealth.com.