2025 ADFM Annual Conference

There will be (2) 45-minute breakfast roundtable discussions on a myriad of member-submitted topics ranging from open discussions, to specific departmental updates, or focused on networking.

Previously, Morbidity and Mortality conferences (M&M) at our institution were simply sessions where cases that had a bad outcome were presented and blame was often assigned, with little productive conversation about process improvement. Residents and faculty often left those conferences feeling guilty and more stressed. We have refocused our Morbidity and Mortality conference into one that centers on practice and quality improvement. In our new approach, each case is presented and all cognitive and system issues are addressed with a Fishbone Diagram, with a significant amount of time devoted to the discussion of identified problems and potential solutions. We believe this discussion is the most important part of the presentation. We continually stress our philosophy to our residents that these processes are not meant to be punitive, but are meant to promote self, departmental and systemic introspection to continually build a safe culture for learning and patient care improvement. Our department’s change has led to better teaching opportunities in patient safety and quality improvement to meet ACGME program objectives and to continuously improve the quality of our patient care. With our interventions, we have sought to foster this philosophy in not only our inpatient care but, equally importantly, our outpatient care too. We hope to inspire similar adoption of this process at other academic and non-academic practices.