Patient Safety
The number one priority of the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) is to make Washington a better place to practice medicine and to receive care. We are committed to patient safety and to providing high quality care to every patient in our state.
Adverse Drug Reactions: Reporting Mechanism
Medwatch,
the FDA health professionals' medical products reporting
program for voluntary reporting of adverse events and product
problems.
Medication
Errors, the USP medication errors reporting program
in cooperation with the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. (Coming soon.)
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Dangerous Abbreviations and Preferred
Terms
The WSMA encourages physicians to utilize the preferred
terms in their office setting as well as in the hospital. (Coming soon.)
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Eliminating Wrong-Site Surgery
Recommended policies to prevent wrong-site
surgeries.
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AMA Patient Safety Toolkit
The AMA—through its Making Strides in Safety® program—has developed a new resource that contains quality measures for physicians to use and new strategies to reduce harm.
The toolkit “Working together to improve care and prevent harm” includes quality measures that, for example, can help physicians deliver reliable, evidence-based care for heart failure. It also includes a new strategy that details how to reduce harm from high-alert medications such as sedatives, narcotics and insulin.
The AMA also recently created a booklet, “The physician’s role in medication reconciliation,” that details issues, strategies and safety principles to optimize the safe and effective use of medications. The booklet includes a medication tip card physicians can share with their patients.
Access these and other AMA-developed tools that are part of the Making Strides in Safety program.
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William O. Robertson Patient Safety Award
2008 Patient Safety Award form [PDF] Past years recipients [PDF]
Ever since the Institute of Medicine released To Err is Human, there has been a lot of attention to improving patient safety. Most of these efforts have been in the inpatient setting.
We can all be proud of Washington state's involvement in the 100-Thousand Lives Campaign and the fact that Don Berwick has repeatedly pointed to Washington state as being a leader in this effort.
We can also be proud that the WSMA was a founding member of the Washington effort. Clearly, patient safety has been one of our priorities for the last several years.
The WSMA established the William O. Robertson Patient Safety Award in order to recognize innovative and creative patient safety activities, especially in the ambulatory setting.
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Other resources:
Patient Safety Curriculum (WSMA)
A Resource from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Washington Patient Safety Coalition Washington State Hospital Association AMA-Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement
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