AMDA Foundation - The AMDA Foundation’s Research Network Conference

Home

Vol XXIII, Nov `06

The AMDA Foundation’s Research Network Conference

Vol XXIII, Nov `06

At the LTC-QI Partnership, we focus on improving the care processes related to pain management and pressure ulcer prevention. The AMDA Foundation, however, has a broad focus, including a wide array of quality topics, including patient safety. Patient safety is a basic tenet of the physicians’ oath to “first, do no harm.”

The AMDA Foundation’s Long-Term Care Research Network Conference, which took place recently in Tampa, Florida, aimed to develop a long-term care patient safety research agenda. Below are summaries of several key presentations.

Patient Safety Culture

What is Patient Safety Culture (PSC)?

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), PSC involves creating an environment that encourages nursing home staff to share information about patient safety problems and proactively seek solutions to avoid or improve safety problems.

On Saturday, October 28, Steve Handler, MD, MS, Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center, opened the conference by providing an overview of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) report “Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century.”

Dr. Handler also discussed the definition of Patient Safety Culture (PSC)—which is shared above—and the instruments used to assess it. PSC assessments can help nursing homes

Identify areas for improvement
Evaluate the success of patient safety interventions
Develop internal and external benchmarking
Fulfill regulatory requirements

Dr. Handler presented the results of his study, “Patient Safety Culture Assessment in the Nursing Home”—which represents the most complete assessment of PSC in the nursing home setting.

Dr. Handler measured PSC in long-term care using an instrument based on the same items and dimensions as one developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for use in hospitals. According to Dr. Handler, “the response rate was good; [it was] better than most mailed surveys and studies of PSC reported in the hospital literature.”

Medication Errors

Kenneth Barker, PhD, Director of the Center for Pharmacy Operations and Designs at Auburn University specializes in the leadership of transdisciplinary research teams for reengineering drug-use systems in hospitals, HMOs, and integrated health care delivery systems.

During his presentation, “Methodological Issues in Studying Medication Errors,” Dr. Barker spoke about the methodological studies of observation in regard to medication errors and used actual errors observed to demonstrate the problems of detecting medication errors in the LTC environment.

Next Steps

Where do we go from here? The AMDA Foundation leadership team is currently analyzing discussion from the conference and will determine the appropriate next steps to move this important research topic forward.

Your thoughts and perspectives are important to the AMDA Foundation, too; please contact us to share any ideas you have.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The LTC-QI Partnership staff send our best wishes to you and your family during the Thanksgiving holiday.