Advancing Quality, Safety, and Innovation in Patient Care
Established in 2010, INQUIRES has grown into an integrated quality and safety infrastructure that brings together quality improvement, patient safety, research, and informatics across the Department of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine.
Together, we connect quality improvement, patient safety, informatics, and research to turn evidence and patient experiences into safer, higher-quality care.
Our Focus
- Patient Safety: We identify and learn from safety concerns to prevent harm and make care safer for patients.
- Quality Improvement: We use data and evidence and patient experiences to find opportunities for improvement and make meaningful changes in patient care.
- Clinical Informatics & Research: We use technology and data to improve care, bring research findings into clinical practice, and help shape future research around patient needs.
- Education & Collaboration: We bring together clinicians, trainees, and teams across specialties to share knowledge and improve care together.
From Evidence to Impact
From improving anesthesia safety practices to informing and advancing research focused on patient recovery, our work translates knowledge into meaningful changes in care, with the goal of improving outcomes locally and beyond.
We use clinical data, learn from safety events and near misses, and work with teams across the department to prevent complications, improve medication safety, and strengthen clinical practices.
How We Advance Quality & Safety
- Patient Safety & Learning: Through safety event reporting, multidisciplinary case reviews, debriefings, and our Review, Improve, Strengthen, Educate (RISE) conference, we examine what happened, understand why, and identify ways to prevent future harm.
- Quality Measurement & Improvement: We use clinical dashboards, performance feedback, and national collaborations such as the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group (MPOG) to measure care and identify opportunities for improvement. Our Anesthesiology Safety & Quality Collaborative helps turn these insights into changes in clinical practice.
- Collaboration & Education: We work with clinicians, trainees, and healthcare leaders across WashU Medicine and BJC HealthCare to share lessons learned, develop solutions, and strengthen our culture of patient safety
- Turning Clinical Data into Knowledge and Better Patient Care: Our team connects clinical informatics, data analytics, and research to better understand patient care, support clinical decisions, and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Clinical Informatics & Data Analytics: We use electronic health records and clinical data to develop dashboards, measure outcomes, and support patient safety, quality improvement, clinical operations, and research across WashU Medicine and BJC HealthCare.
- Connecting Pracitce & Research: We work closely with the Division of Clinical and Translational Research (DoCTR) to connect quality improvement and research, turning scientific discoveries into better clinical practices and using lessons from patient care to inform future research. Through national collaborations such as the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group (MPOG) and patient-centered studies like the multicenter THRIVE trial, we help advance knowledge and improve outcomes that matter to patients.
INQUIRES extends well beyond its core faculty and staff, bringing together a broad network of multidisciplinary committees, working groups, and collaboratives across WashU Medicine and BJC HealthCare.
Together, these teams contribute expertise in clinical care, quality improvement, patient safety, informatics, research, and education.
Meet Our Core Team
York Jiao, MD
Director of Clinical Informatics; Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
- Email: york.jiao@wustl.edu
Ivan Kangrga, MD, PhD
Vice Chair for Health System Liaison; BJH Director of Perioperative Safety and Quality; Professor, Anesthesiology
- Email: kangrgai@wustl.edu
Admin: Erin Hogg
Bethany Pennington, PharmD, BCPS
Associate Vice Chair of Quality & Safety; Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
- Email: penningtonb@wustl.edu
Admin: Alexis Williams
Andrea Reidy, MD
Director of Patient Safety; Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
- Email: a.reidy@wustl.edu
Jonathan Zoller, MD
Associate Director of Clinical Anesthesiology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital; Associate Professor, Anesthesiology; PACU POD Leader
- Email: zollerj@wustl.edu
Admin; Erin Hogg