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Englewood, CO, Oct. 30, 2006 — Three leading research entities today released the Physician Practice Patient Safety Assessment (PPPSA), a unique Web-based tool (http://www.physiciansafetytool.org/) that allows medical practices to evaluate daily processes that affect patient safety. Practices that complete the PPPSA will receive a comprehensive workbook that can help identify problem areas and pathways to improvement. Data analysis and benchmarking information will also be available for a nominal fee to practices that submit their data online. All data submitted are confidential.

The PPPSA tool was created by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). The tool's development and a related study of patient safety in medical groups have been supported by a grant from The Commonwealth Fund.

The PPPSA allows practices to evaluate their effectiveness and minimize risk across multiple locations in the following areas:

• Medications — appropriate medication history, prescribing, storage, labeling, purchasing, dispensing of samples and administration of vaccines;
  
  
• Handoffs and transitions of patients between clinicians or locations — proper procedures for care coordination to track patients and their clinical information;
  
  
• Surgery and invasive procedures — patient safety issues relating to ambulatory surgery, especially sedation and anesthesia;
  
  
• Personnel qualifications and competency — appropriately assessing the qualifications of caregivers;
  
  
• Patient education and communication — actions that practices can take to help patients understand and carry out their responsibilities; and
  
  
• Practice management and culture — administrative procedures to create a culture of safety.

"Many errors are preventable if proper patient safety-centered procedures are used throughout the continuum of care, including in physician practices," says Terry Hammons, MD, MGMA senior fellow. "The task of improving patient safety is shared by all health care settings, but medical practices must take responsibility for learning from each other and keeping their processes current."

Through use of the PPPSA, practices can:

• Clarify opportunities for improvement;
  
  
• Establish baseline measures of current procedures and evaluate progress over time;
  
  
• Compare their data to aggregate national data for practices of similar size, structure or location;
  
  
• Facilitate conversation and dialogue about patient safety among all levels of staff;
  
  
• Minimize liability exposure; and
  
  
• Enable improved care.

The Physician Practice Patient Safety Assessment project is an outgrowth of a previous collaboration between ISMP and HRET on the ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment for Hospitals. A subsequent phase of this project will use findings to structure educational resources and tools that will assist physician practices in improving systems to prevent medical errors and enhance the quality of patient care.

Source: The Commonwealth Funds