Current Residents and Fellows

Alabama Board of Medical Examiners

• Understanding the Licensure Process: Dual Agencies and their Roles in the Application Process
• Application for Unrestricted and Limited Licenses (initial applications and renewals) and Fees
• Online License Renewal Information
• ALBME Contact Information
• Look up a License
• Check Application Status

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

• New Applications
• Renewal Applications
• General Registration Information

American Board of Medical Specialties

The USA Housestaff Council is a self-governing body, composed of the chief residents from each of the specialty residency programs and a senior fellow from the subspecialty fellowships. The Council meets monthly, alternating locations between USA Health University Hospital and USA Health Children's & Women's Hospital.

Purpose

The Council represents the interns, residents, and fellows in GME programs sponsored by USA Health on issues related to the clinical working environment. The Council provides a forum to promote...

• Excellence in the development, assessment and provision of graduate medical education in the clinical and educational environments
• Professionalism in the clinical and educational environments
• Patient safety in the environment of clinical education
• Communication and exchange of ideas across disciplines and professions
• Communication with the GME and USA Health leadership

Note: The USA Housestaff Council and the USA Housestaff Association are two separate organizations with distinct functions.

You can make USA Health even better!

Do you have an idea that would take USA Health to the next level? Do you have an idea for a quality improvement project to make our great hospitals and clinics even better? Do you have an idea that would improve patient care or patient safety? Don't know where to begin?

Step 1: Educate yourself on quality improvement science.

Prepare yourself to participate in quality improvement efforts in USA Health and develop an understanding of quality improvement science. USA Health has adopted the framework of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) for quality and performance projects, including the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) improvement cycle. To facilitate your understanding, completion of the first three modules in the IHI's Improvement Capability quality improvement modules are required to participate in USA Health projects. Instruction in quality improvement is free for all faculty members, residents, and fellows via IHI's Open School.

Online Quality Improvement Education

The IHI's online Open School courses are free for students, medical residents, and university faculty members. To gain access to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Open School, register here..

1. Complete your user profile (accessed via the myIHI tab) by selecting “School – Medicine” as your organization type, identifying the organization as "University of South Alabama College of Medicine" and selecting “Teacher/Professor”, “Intern or Resident” or “Student” for your primary role. Fellows should select the "Intern or Resident" option. Do NOT select "physician" as your primary role.
2. Once you have registered, you can navigate to the courses navigate to the courses here.
3. Complete the three required modules under Improved Capability below, which provide a basic understanding of quality improvement. Residents and fellows must provide their program office with a copy of the completion certificates for these three modules.

Improvement Capability

QI 101: Introduction to Healthcare Improvement
QI 102: How to Improve with the Model for Improvement
QI 103: Testing and Measuring Changes with PDSA Cycles

The courses may be accessed via mobile device with IHI Open School apps once you are registered. Faculty can obtain CME for completed modules.

In addition to the above IHI modules on quality improvement, the online Open School provides many other online modules which cover relevant content. For example, in the IHI Patient Safety series the first lesson in Fundamentals of Patient Safety (PS 101) covers the concept of the "Swiss cheese model of system failure" and lesson 2 in Root Cause and Systems Analysis (PS 104) covers "How a Root Cause Analysis Works". These are important concepts which provide understanding of the tools used in the modern healthcare system. While only the first three quality improvement modules in the Improvement Capability set are required, faculty members, fellows, residents, and staff are expected to have a working knowledge of quality improvement techniques, and additional education may be required to achieve this level of understanding.

Step 2: Get involved!

After learning the basics of quality improvement science, get engaged in taking USA Health to the next level. You can help make a great healthcare system even better! Contact the chair of your department or your program director.