A Patient Safety Rounds Pilot Program at Clinics Affiliated With a Large Research and Education Institution.

OBJECTIVE: In 2012, a 6-month Patient Safety Rounds pilot program was conducted to examine the provider perspective of patient safety and to educate personnel about national patient safety goals at clinics associated with a large research and education institution. METHODS: The Patient Safety Rounds (PSR) team, consisting of 3 to 4 rotating members from executive leadership, physician and nursing groups, and administrative staff, identified contacts within clinical departments and made arrangements for monthly visits. Patient safety issues were preselected by committee for presentation and discussion at a premeeting held with supervisors and administrators during the first few minutes of PSR. After the premeeting, the PSR team split up and met individually with care providers, between patient visits, to review the monthly safety topic and any patient safety concerns that they wanted to discuss during the visit. RESULTS: Approximately 37 patient safety issues were identified, recorded, and classified during these PSR team visits. If the issues could not be immediately addressed, they were either addressed shortly thereafter or referred to appropriate personnel for resolution. CONCLUSIONS: This PSR pilot program was viewed as a success by participants because it identified provider perspective concerns, which led to the identification and resolution of numerous patient safety issues. This interesting pilot program, however, was discontinued owing to the departure of key leadership and the reorganization and reprioritization of resources.

A survey of environmental safety issues at 20 medical clinics.

In the study described in this article, the authors performed safety walk-throughs or inspections for 20 clinics located both inside a major medical center clinic (onsite) and away from the main clinic site (offsite). A checklist was used to evaluate compliance with institutional, local, state, and federal guidelines and regulations. The results obtained at onsite clinics were compared with the results from offsite clinics. Findings suggested no overall difference in the number of yes (desirable) answers. A marginally significant difference, however, was observed between the onsite and offsite clinics with regard to knowledge of infection control and waste/infection control questions. The walk-throughs helped create an improved working relationship between clinic personnel and environmental safety personnel, allowed for correction of safety issues, enabled an informal training opportunity, and increased institutional compliance with guidelines and regulations.