The Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute (MFRI) provides fire, rescue, and emergency medical service training and education to local, state, national, and international customers. The Institute's strategic plan intentionally named the need to develop a Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement Section.

For MFRI Quality Assurance is a compliance review assessment process of institutional policies, procedures, processes, practices, and standards in fire, rescue, and emergency medical services training and education. This assessment finds gaps in specifications, development of products, and delivery of programs.

Quality Improvement is a continuous process to address and resolve those gaps in fire, rescue, and emergency medical services training and education delivery.

Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement Processes:

To complete these processes a Quality Assurance Committee is appointed by the Excutive

Director. Committee members meet the position requirements, complete a series of QA/QI

functions and serve a two-year term.

An example of these functions includes using a set of tools (Fishbone diagram, Root Cause Analysis, and Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle, etc.) to develop solutions that address shortfalls in policies, procedures, and processes. Solutions are measured regularly to check the impact on safety, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Documentation.

The Quality Assurance Concern is a formal process to document issues in providing training and education in fire, rescue, and emergency medical service training and education. A standard form is used to gather information. That action starts a fact-finding process. Results from that process are collected and presented to the QAC. A disposition is provided for each concern.

Point of contact:

The MFRI QA/QI Manager is the point of contact for all issues. if you have any questions or

concerns, contact the QA/QI Manager at mmcadams@umd.edu