Massachusetts Medical Society announces completion, offering of Patient Safety Curriculum for health care professionals
Comprehensive curriculum, offered free to health care professionals, becomes cornerstone of wide-ranging patient safety activity that includes adding information technology programs, conducting 3 forums for health care professionals and the public
Waltham, Mass (PRWEB) March 6, 2004
The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) today announced the completion of its Patient Safety Curriculum, a comprehensive continuing medical education course designed to educate physicians and health care professionals about improvements in patient safety.
The MMS Patient Safety Curriculum, developed under the direction of the Medical SocietyÂ’s Committee on Quality of Medical Practice, is a three-module course offering patient safety concepts, ways to illustrate the scope and magnitude of medical errors, and information on the nature, distribution, prevention and control of medical errors. The curriculum has become a cornerstone of the SocietyÂ’s wide-ranging activities on the topic of patient safety.
MMS President Thomas E. Sullivan, M. D. said patient safety has been and remains a top priority for his organization and its 18,000 physician members. “The Society’s focus on improving the communication among health care professionals and between patients, their families and physicians is a giant step forward to preventing medical errors,” said Sullivan. “We are pleased to be taking a leadership role in this critical medical area by offering this comprehensive program along with our other patient safety efforts.”
The first module in the program, “Medical Error Scenarios and Perspectives on Patient Safety,” was made available last March and focuses on patient safety perspectives, identifying errors, designing systems for safety, and Federal mandates for quality improvement.
The final two modules were posted on the SocietyÂ’s website within the last two weeks, bringing about the announcement of the completed curriculum in observance of National Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 7-13.
The second module, “Medication Safety, Systems and Communications,” concentrates on such areas as methods to reduce errors in clinical practices, packaging and labeling issues, dangers of handwritten prescriptions, doctor-patient communication, transcultural issues, and medication errors, including those that happen at home.
The third program, “Case Studies and Root Cause Analysis of Adverse Events,” presents cases that describe adverse events and medical errors to illustrate how to conduct a root cause analysis - an important tool for understanding and addressing adverse events in health care.
Health care professionals may download the curriculum free from the Medical SocietyÂ’s website at www. massmed. org. The curriculum comes with an instructorsÂ’ guide and is designed to be taught by practicing clinicians as well as experts in the patient safety field.
In addition to the curriculum, Sullivan cited the Medical SocietyÂ’s other major developments and their progress that will add significantly to patient safety efforts, most notably in the arena of information technology with electronic prescribing and electronic medical records.
“The use of information technology and clinical decision support, such as checking for drug allergies and drug interaction, will have a huge impact on patient safety,” said Sullivan. “The Massachusetts Medical Society is in the forefront of these innovative efforts nationally and locally. We are beginning to offer advanced electronic prescribing to our members, and we are coming ever closer to setting standards for the use of electronic medical records. Both of these activities will add immeasurably to improving patient safety and the quality of care.”
Sullivan also called attention to the Society’s collaboration with the Ford Hall Forum, presenter of the country’s oldest free public lecture series, in conducting a forum entitled “Medical Errors and Patient Safety: Where are we now?” Featuring some the nation’s leading experts on the topic, the forum will take place Tuesday, May 11, 2004 at 6:30 p. m. at the Massachusetts Medical Society, 860 Winter Street, Waltham, in the Waltham Woods Corporate Center. The session is part of the Ford Hall Forum’s Winter/Spring 2004 Lecture and Discussion Series and is free and open to the public.
The collaborative effort with the Ford Hall Forum will be the MMS’s third symposium on patient safety this year. Last month, MMS conducted a forum in concert with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors. That forum, attracting some 200 physicians and health care providers, focused on medication errors. And on April 26, MMS will sponsor another continuing medical education course, “The Human Factor: the Critical Importance of Effective Communication and Teamwork in Patient Safety.”
MMS also offers on its website a wealth of other patient safety information, for patients as well as health care professionals.
The Massachusetts Medical Society, with more than 18,000 physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the physicians and patients of Massachusetts. Founded in 1781, the MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. The Society owns and publishes The New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal Watch family of professional newsletters, and AIDS Clinical Care, and produces HealthNews, a consumer health publication. For more information, visit www. massmed. org
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