ASHRM Provides Nearly $200,000 in Research Funding

The American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) launched its new research program in March by awarding $195,000 to investigators engaged in evidence-based research. Applicants who received ASHRM funding are working to improve patient outcomes through their research on high reliability organizations, serious safety events and root cause analysis. This research is intended to improve patient safety, supporting ASHRM’s goal of “Getting to ZeroTM: Eliminating Preventable Serious Safety Events.”

ASHRM provided $100,000 to the MedStar Health Research Institution (MHRI) in support of its research project “An Evidence Based Framework for Root Cause Analysis Safety Solutions.” Primary investigators Aaron Zachary Hettinger, M.D. and Rollins J. Fairbanks, M.S., M.D., will develop practice guidance documents which hospital root cause analysis (RCA) teams can use to ensure their RCA solutions are sustainable and effective.

The American Health Lawyers Association received $45,000 in support of its research project “Minimizing Electronic Health Records (EHR)-Related Serious Safety Events and Related Malpractice Liability.” Primary investigators Elizabeth Belmont, Esq. and Dean Forrest Sittig, Ph.D., will create a toolkit to minimize EHR-related serious safety events.

ASHRM also awarded $50,000 to The Joint Commission for its project “Universal Protocol Simulation and Defect Evaluation (UPSIDE).” Primary investigator Scott Williams, Psy.D., will lead a team in evaluating a reproducible simulation model that can improve surgical team performance of the universal protocol.

Additional grants up to $100,000 will be available in 2012. The call for research proposals will opened mid-March.

For more information about ASHRM’s research grants program, contact ASHRM at ashrm@aha.org or visit www.ashrm.org.