ABQAURP News

November / December 2010

Are We Looking Carefully Enough at What is Most Important for Patient Safety?

While most (90%) of the currently available research and literature on patient safety addresses events in hospital settings, most care takes place in ambulatory settings. The trends toward moving the care of many patients, including vulnerable groups, to outpatient and alternative (non-hospital) settings shows no signs of waning, and may increase further as attempts at medical cost containment continue.

Is patient safety a problem in outpatient settings and communities? The answer is a resounding yes. A recent article by Drs. Tejal K. Gandhi and Thomas H. Lee in the New England Journal of Medicine (http://healthpolicyandreform.nejm.org/?p=12527) highlights some of the differences in the types of errors that occur in various settings.

Experts believe that electronic health record implementation will address some quality and safety issues, perhaps reducing outpatient diagnostic errors by improving the availability of needed test results and decreasing medication errors with the addition of decision support for e-prescribing. How EHRs will change patient behaviors, however, with regard to life style and medication adherence or improve provider communication and education remains unclear. For more information, see this Patient Safety Primer from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (ARHQ) at http://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer.aspx?primerID=16.

How has your organization chosen to consider the patient safety implications of care delivered in an outpatient setting? Have you done anything differently because of a concern about ambulatory patient safety? Do you have stories of success or warnings of failure that you could share?

We’re all in this together. Let’s remember that as we move patients from one setting to another, especially when they go home.

Please send inquiries and comments to rwillog@abqaurp.org, please use
Quality Column in the subject line.
We look forward to your participation in this new column. 

ABQAURP welcomes applications for joint sponsorship of educational activities for continuing education credit. ABQAURP accredits a variety of activities, including:

ABQAURP is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to sponsor continuing medical education for physicians and is also accredited by the Florida Board of Nursing to sponsor nursing contact hours. As an accredited provider, ABQAURP is here to work with each joint sponsor organization to ensure the accreditation process runs as smoothly as possible. Benefits of working with ABQAURP include: one-on-one assistance, on-site assistance, contact for speakers and commercial supporters, evaluation compilation, one-time mailing list to drive attendance, website placement, and advertising in Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare magazine.

ABQAURP believes that ongoing continuing education in new research, identified problem areas in clinical practice, and areas of interest in the quality assurance, utilization review, risk management, and managed care fields is a worthy endeavor to pursue. Participants improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of health care delivered to the patients to improve the overall clinical outcome. Plus, each activity encourages participants to put into practice knowledge learned and assess the impact. Innovative courses provide important updates and practical tools for all health care professionals. These activities ensure that participating health care professionals receive up-to-date information on the ever-changing health care environment.