According to one academic research report, errors occur from five to 80 times per 100,000 primary-care encounters, with the majority of those errors related to missed diagnoses and delayed treatments.
Hoping to lower these numbers, the Medical Group Management Association has set a goal of helping physician groups promote safety within their practices. To do so, the group has issued a white paper offering an analysis of management issues related to delivering quality care in practices, particularly developing a culture of patient safety.
In the paper, MGMA authors describe the differences between patient safety in hospitals versus ambulatory settings, then discuss how to build a patient safety process complete with the right administrative policies and procedures. It also recommends how to establish the practice administrator as a chief safety officer, and how doing so can help encourage collaboration and leadership within the practice.
The paper also touches on other important operational issues, such as making sure staff use the opportunity of obtaining informed consent from patients as a chance to explain, once again, what's going to take place.
To learn more about the MGMA paper:
- read this Healthcare Finance News piece