ACP American College of Physicians - Internal Medicine - Doctors for Adults

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Patient Safety Continuing Medical Education

The cornerstone of Patient Safety: The Other Side of the Quality Equation is a set of CME modules addressing patient safety in general and ambulatory care in particular. This curriculum addresses seven broad domains that have been shown to exert a powerful influence on patient safety. The curriculum familiarizes College members with the key issues underlying patient safety and offers tools on how to achieve patient safety in ambulatory care. While most Americans receive the majority of their health care in the ambulatory setting, little research has been done in this area. By working with acknowledged leaders in the field of patient safety, Patient Safety: The Other Side of the Quality Equation addresses this need.

The curriculum is as follows:

Systems
Changing the culture of "blame and shame" to systems-centered problem-solving
Case studies and problem solving illustrating how systemic breakdowns cause adverse events
Techniques for safety improvement; take-home points to help physicians apply systems-thinking in their practices

Medication Errors
"Danger zones": where and how medication errors occur
Medication prescribing system components: communication
Written medication orders: illegible handwriting, getting complete information
Look-alike and sound-alike drug names
Proven strategies to reduce errors

Idealized office design
The need to address patient safety in the office
Connection between safety and system reliability
The physician's office as a complex set of interdependent parts
Analyzing your office practices: techniques and examples
Setting goals for reliability: working as a team
Patient registries and proactive population management for reliable care provision
Decision support: how to find information when you need it most

Electronics
How information technology improves health care delivery outcomes
Electronic medical records
Electronic prescribing
Pros and cons of the electronic office
Electronic decision-support tools: an overview
Handheld devices (PDAs): what they can do for the physician
Choosing the most appropriate system for your office: an algorithm

Communication
Referrals
Pharmacy communication
Test results
Creating reliable communication between team members in the physician's office: techniques
Creating reliable communication between various providers: techniques

The Role of the Patient
Communicating with the patient: patient education
The patient as a partner in the safe delivery of care: what he/she can do
Questions the patient should always ask
What the physician should always ask the patient
Medication compliance
Recognizing and overcoming cultural, generational, language, and low-literacy barriers

Human Cognition
Cognition-related adverse events
Why no one is to blame
The role of fatigue in cognition failures
Time pressure and medical errors
How medicine has changed in the last 30 years: new challenges to human cognitive limits
Overcoming human cognitive limits: tools and techniques

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