Research Focus Areas for the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice

Cross Cutting Systems and Methods

Building quality and safety measurement systems (e.g., electronic clinical quality measures)
Clinical Decision Support/AI/Machine Learning
Pharmacovigilance
Communication and coordination
Cost effectiveness of risk reducing strategies
Cultural changes
Human factors
Patient centered care

Landmark Research

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.

Key Prior Studies

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.