Cross Cutting Systems and Methods
The Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice is committed to improving patient safety across the continuum of care. The Center identifies areas of concern in day-to-day care which in turn, guides future research initiatives.
Several of the Center's Core Investigators have published landmark results establishing a better understanding of the issues that compromise patient safety and the many interventions that can help improve it.
| Research | Findings |
|---|---|
| The Harvard Medical Practice Study | Demonstrated the degree and scope of healthcare safety problems. |
| The Adverse Drug Event (ADE) Prevention Study | Showed the magnitude of injuries caused by drugs in hospitals and how they might be prevented. |
| Intervention Phase of the ADE Prevention Study | Found Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) reduced serious medication errors by 55% and overall medication error rates by over 80%. |
| "Smart Pumps" Evaluation | Assessed IV infusion delivery systems that warn if a medication dosage is incorrect prior to drug administration. |
| Drug Dosing for Patients with Abnormal Kidney Function | Found that making dosage suggestions increases the chance patients would get the right dose by a factor of two and shorten hospital stays by one half day. |
| Drug Dosing for Geriatric Patients | Demonstrated that when CPOE provides guidance on proper medication dosages, there is improved dosing and a decreased rate of falls and subsequent injuries. |
| The Improving Medication Prescribing Study | Studied 10 primary care practices to determine the rate of ADEs in the ambulatory setting. |
| Prolonged Intern Shifts | Demonstrated and confirmed that prolonged shifts for interns in the intensive care unit are associated with substantially higher error rates, leading to the restructuring of interns’ on-call schedules to improve sleep and safety. |
| Research | Impact |
|---|---|
| Barcode Technology | Evaluated the impact of barcode technology on reducing medication errors at the dispensing and administrative stages and its effects on hospital finances. |
| Electronic Health Record | Evaluated the impact of a statewide implementation program of Electronic Health Record (EHR) by all ambulatory care practices. |
| Shared Online Health Records for Patient Safety and Care | Addressed the impact of tools for electronic patient-provider communication and shared online health records on patient care and safety. |
| Trends in the Safety of Electronic Health Record Systems | Have evaluated the safety performance of EHR systems for thousands of U.S. hospitals over time. |
| Falls Prevention | Developed a decision support and communication intervention for use by healthcare teams, patients, and family members to prevent patient falls. |
For over a century, a leader in patient care, medical education and research, with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery.
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