PMID: 14551467
Issn Print: 0002-0443
Publication Date: 2003/10/01
Do No Harm: Provider Perceptions of Patient Safety
Mary Mincer Hansen; Jonathan Durbin; Ronda Sinkowitz-Cochran; Audrey Vaughn; Mary Langowski; Stephen Gleason
+ Author Information
Author Information: : Director (Dr Hansen), Patient Safety Administrator (Mr Durbin), Iowa Department of Public Health, Des Moines; Behavioral Epidemiologist (Ms Sinkowitz-Cochran), Prevention and Evaluation Branch Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga; Graduate Student (Ms Vaughn), Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa; Legislative Assistant (Ms Langowski), US Senate Agricultural Committee, Washington, DC; Chief of Staff for Governor Thomas Vilsack (Dr Gleason), Des Moines, Iowa.
Excerpt
Thrust into the national spotlight by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report “To Err is Human,” patient safety has become a hot topic among providers, consumers, purchasers, payers, policymakers, and the media. 1 Research has also shown that adverse health outcomes attributable to medical errors cost the United States billions of dollars. 2,3 The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has recently approved 2003 National Patient Safety Goals. 4 To address this complex issue, healthcare organizations and professionals must collaborate in identifying barriers to and strategies for improving patient safety. Following the release of the IOM report, the Iowa Department of Public Health initiated a collaborative partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to research provider perceptions of patient safety.
Focus groups were conducted with Iowa healthcare leaders representing 3 professional groups: nurses (n= 8), pharmacists (n=6), and physicians (n=8). These leaders included representatives from the regulatory boards, statewide associations, public and private universities, integrated health systems, and private practice. The objectives were to define patient safety, identify system characteristics influencing patient safety, identify specific barriers to providing safe care, and identify strategies to address these barriers. The research team analyzed the transcribed comments and grouped them together by common themes.
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