Certificate

Award
Duration
Format
Audience
Application Deadline
Start Deadline

Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Quality and Safety
4-8 months
Blended or Online
Clinical and administrative healthcare professionals
Blended: July 1 or November 1

Online: July 1
Blended: August or January

Online: August

UAB’s Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Quality and Safety is a 4-course 15-graduate credit hour program that provides participants with tangible skills to reduce patient harm and increase organizational quality. Working professionals apply the knowledge they learn in real time to their unit, department, clinic, hospital, long-term care facility, outpatient care center, or physician office. Through a collaborative environment, learners discover improvement science and quality principles. The certificate prepares individuals to implement quality- and safety- based initiatives in their home institutions, utilizing the concepts of high-reliability leadership, data system design, process management, and hazard analysis.

Program Formats

This program is offered in two formats: blended or online.

• Blended (known as Quality Academy)
  • In the blended format, learners complete the 4-course program in an accelerated cohort: 4 months in
    one semester.
  • Participants in this format complete 60% of their learning online and 40% of their learning in our executive learning center, in person over four weekends (Friday – Sunday).
  • Learners work in teams to complete a guided quality improvement project which is completed throughout the semester.
• Online
  • In the online format, participates complete the 4-course program over two semesters (8 months).
  • Participants take two courses during the fall semester (August – December) and two courses in the spring
    semester (January – April).

Curriculum

The curriculum has been designed for clinical and administrative working professional. UAB offers full time (blended format) and part time (online format) alternatives.

Learners who successfully complete the Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Quality and Safety may apply their course credits to either the Master of Science in Healthcare Quality and Safety or the Master of Science in Healthcare Simulation upon acceptance into the program.

Tuition & Fees

UAB’s tuition and fees are competitively priced. Learners in online format of the Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Quality and Safety pay the same tuition whether they reside in or outside of the state of Alabama.. In-state and out-of-state rates do apply for those who enroll in the blended format. For general UAB tuition and fees, visit the UAB Student Financial Aid website.