PREVENTION OF MEDICAL ERRORS

Course overview

This course will provide and introduction and overview of the safety concerns facing health care systems today, including data and background on the magnitude of the problem Error reduction and prevention, and multi-causal analysis. Goals of the Joint Commission and National Patient Safety goals will be discussed. The ultimate goal is to promote safety and improve patient outcomes. Patient and Family participation will also be stressed within this course. Objectives 1.Describe the magnitude of medical errors and the effect on patient safety 2.Identify the processes to approach error reduction and prevention 3.Recognize error prone situations. Processes and identify factors that impact the occurrence of errors 4.Define types medical errors 5.Define the process and benefit of multi-causal analysis (i.e. Root Cause, Sentinel Events and/or FEMA) 6.Describe processes to improve patient outcomes 7.Identify safety needs of special populations 8.Discuss the importance of public (community) education in reducing errors. 9.Define Patient/Family responsibilities in aiding health care providers to reduce errors 10.Describe what each of us can do to protect patients and ourselves from accidental injury.