Quality Improvement vs Patient Safety

Quality care is defined by core values (6 per IOM – STEEPE):

1) Safety: minimize harm
2) Timeliness: minimize wait times
3) Effectiveness: minimize ineffective treatment/tests
4) Efficiency: minimize waste
5) Patient centered: minimize paternalism
6) Equity: minimize disparities

Quality improvement is the journey to achieve those values. Patient safety is one of the core values.

Thoughts from Monday 6/5/2017:

Today we watched a video of a young boy who died from a medical error.  He had pectus excavatum and underwent a Nuss procedure.  Unfortunately he got such a high dose of the IV NSAID – ketoralac – that in addition to acute kidney injury, he developed a duodenal ulcer that perforated and led to septic shock and death.  

Of the many tragedies including the death, the family was left helpless, “as if on an island,” said the mother while in… Continue reading →

I’m excited to meet everyone and learn about successful existing projects that I can implement at my institution. Would love any ideas on eliminating “retained foreign objects” in the operating room. Hopefully we can all learn ways to multiply lessons learned across institutions.

– Jason Chen