Regenstrief Center plays key role in new state patient safety center
|
Steven Witz, who leads the Regenstrief Center at Purdue's Discovery Park, said the Indiana Patient Safety Center will assist the state's more than 160 hospitals and clinics in developing reliable systems that prevent harm to patients. The center begins operations on Saturday (July 1).
"Voluntary patient safety data collected from hospitals across Indiana will allow us to identify the root causes of these mistakes and develop ways to meaningfully improve the quality and safety of health-care processes," Witz said.
The Indiana Hospital&Health Association (IHHA) announced plans on May 10 to create the Indiana Patient Safety Center.
The center brings together the resources and expertise of Purdue's Regenstrief Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, the Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute, the Indiana State Medical Association and Health Care Excel, which is Indiana's federally contracted quality improvement organization.
"We will foster a blame-free culture of safety that helps us identify system failures and work aggressively together to prevent them from recurring in all of our organizations," said Vincent C. Caponi, IHHA board chairman and chief executive officer of St. Vincent Health. "What sets us apart from efforts elsewhere is the combination of strong physician leadership and the rich knowledge and research base that our academic partners provide."
An Indiana regulation, which took effect Jan. 1, requires state hospitals to report medical errors in more than two dozen categories and make that information available for public review. Data from Indiana's hospitals will be collected during the current calendar year, and the state's first report will be made available to consumers in 2007.
Caponi said this center is the industry's response to that regulation and Gov. Mitch Daniels' call for increased public accountability for patient safety.
"Hospitals immediately volunteered to help the governor implement this reporting system," Caponi said. "The data it will generate will be useful to focus process improvement activities. We believe the patient safety center is the important next step toward accelerating change."
Caponi said the center, which is patterned after the Federal Aviation Administration's voluntary safety program and the VA National Center for Patient Safety, will analyze data and use other tools to help eliminate delivery-system failures that could cause harm to patients.
And because of the universities' research resources, the center will play a leadership role nationally in identifying and disseminating best practices, Caponi said.
Betsy Lee, a national consultant on health-care quality improvement and patient safety with 24 years of industry experience, has been named the center's first director.
"The Indiana Patient Safety Center will provide education, training and other tools to foster cultures of safety in hospitals' complex work environments," said Lee, a registered nurse with a master's degree in public health focusing on health policy and administration.
For the last five years, Lee has been a national director and faculty member for key projects for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Cambridge, Mass.-based not-for-profit organization. She is a resident of Carmel, Ind.
At Discovery Park's Regenstrief Center, Purdue experts are applying principles of technology, engineering, and supply-chain management to the health-care system. Initial areas of research have included providing more efficient deployment of physicians, nurses and other health-care personnel; better coordinating inpatient and outpatient treatment; and telehealth.
Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu
Sources: Steven Witz, (765) 496-8303, switz@purdue.edu
Vincent C. Caponi, St. Vincent Hospitals and Health Services, (317) 338-2036
Betsy Lee, Indiana Patient Safety Center, (317) 423-7795, blee@inhha.org
Bob Morr, Indiana Hospital&Health Association, (317) 423-7733, bmorr@inhha.org
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
To the News Service home page