Measuring Patient Suffering as a Type of Harm
This New York Times article looks at how some organizations and providers are using patient survey data to reduce suffering caused by medical care, which some call a type of harm. At the University of Utah, administrators share patient survey data with their 1,200 doctors, nurses, and other health care workers: “There was an immediate and noticeable change. When the university began, it was in about the 30th percentile nationally on the Press Ganey survey. Now, half its providers are in the 90th percentile and 26 percent are in the 99th percentile.”

Medication Reconciliation: New Tools and Strategies
In this recent blog post, Anne Myrka, drug safety pharmacist at IPRO (the CMS-designated Quality Improvement Organization for New York State), discusses the challenges and opportunities related to medication reconciliation. 

Health IT Safety: “First, Do No Harm”
In this recent blog post, IHI faculty Dr. David Classen discusses safety issues associated with the prevalent use of technology in health care and how we need to think about addressing them. “There’s an almost magical way of thinking about health IT: If I just put it in and turn it on, it will improve safety. That's not the way it works. You have to put it in, turn it on, and then endlessly improve it, refine it, and enhance it to make a measureable impact on safety.”

Canadian Medical Students Self-Report Patient Safety Competence
This recent study, published in BMJ Quality & Safety, finds that medical students and postgraduate trainees at a Canadian university report varied levels of confidence in their clinical safety skills and their learning about sociocultural aspects of safety. The authors conclude that there is a need to enhance learning opportunities and structures in the classroom and the clinical setting.
 

Reducing Avoidable Readmissions by Improving Transitions in Care​
March 16-17 | Seattle, WA

View More >>​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​