A Web-based program for implementing evidence-based patient safety recommendations.
BACKGROUND
In response to increasing national concerns about medical safety, product developers from a health services research and software group recently created a commercial Web-based program to address a wide variety of patient safety issues in the acute care setting. They also wanted to provide a program with credible, referenced, and up-to-date content, not just a technology infrastructure for reporting errors.
This Web-based program, which has evolved over time, now features seven modules for assessing organizational risk and for implementing strategies to reduce risk. The Literature Module features detailed synopses that are graded and organized into summary statements to provide recommendations for improving patient safety. The Implementation/Tracking Module includes numerous risk-reduction strategies. The Incident Reporting Module enables the collection of data at the point of care on a variety of incidents, using either paper-based or on-line forms. Other modules offer opportunities to assess adherence to JCAHO patient safety standards, forecast the benefits of certain evidence-based guidelines, evaluate staff competency, and obtain information from a variety of key safety Web sites.
The program is in use at more than 30 health care organization facilities and systems. It is still too early to provide quantitative data on the impact of this program on patient safety.


CONCLUSIONS
It is hoped that vendor solutions such as the one described in this article will help organizations develop a practical and effective framework for addressing the wide range of issues in patient safety.
Greengold
Nancy L
NL
Zynx Health, Inc, 9100 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 655 East, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, USA. greengold@cshs.com
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003625:Data Collection; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003628:Database Management Systems; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D012984:Software; D014481:United States