Review the SAFER guide on the HealthIT.gov website and use the resources and tools to do a self-assessment of your place of work and share your results by answering the following questions:
1- any surprises in the results,
2- what areas of opportunities or improvements did the self-assessment produce,
3- name three things you would include in an improvement plan.
( www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/electronic-health-and-medical-records/safer-guides-optimize-safety )
SAFER Guides will help optimize safety
Jacob Reider | JANUARY 15, 2014
After a lot of hard work, we have combined evidence-based guidelines with practical advice to help you use your health information technology more safely. We’ve been working to post the Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER ) Guides since we highlighted them in our Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan last July.
There are nine SAFER Guides and each is designed to help care delivery organizations of all shapes and sizes conduct self-assessments of recommended practices in those areas we know are important to the safety and safe use of health information technology. The nine guides are:
· High Priority Practices
· Organizational Responsibilities
· Patient Identification
· CPOE with Decision Support
· Test Results Review and Follow-up
· Clinician Communication
· Contingency Planning
· System Interfaces
· System Configuration
As a family physician who has worked for years on making sure that health information technology is leveraged to improve the safety and quality of health care, I’m thrilled to see the SAFER Guides fill a void: We’ve never before had a set of tools that care delivery organizations can use to perform self-assessments and developer customized improvement plans.
There is good evidence that health information technology improves the safety of care, especially when implemented using best practices. We’ve learned that there is a great deal of variability in how information technology is implemented and optimized in care delivery organizations, and this variability may account for some of the problems with the safety and reliability of health IT. These guides help enhance the likelihood that health information technology is implemented in a manner that aligns with best practices. For example, the SAFER Guide on Organization Responsibility should help the leadership of health IT-enabled organizations monitor critical components of the safety and safe use of health IT and make sure that a team of people – including clinicians and safety staff within the organization, as well as health information technology developers – is continuously engaged and focused on safety. The SAFER Guide on High Priority Practices is designed to help organizations explore where they can start to integrate health IT safety into their patient safety programs by identifying high-priority, high-risk practices associated with health IT use, and then suggesting which other SAFER Guides might help.
The SAFER Guides on Contingency Planning (which focuses on avoiding and recovering from downtimes), System Interfaces , and System Configuration should help organizations ensure that the health IT is safely designed, maintained, and configured, is reliably available and that the information therein is accurate and current within established expectations when each clinician uses it to care for patients.
The SAFER Guides on Patient Identification , CPOE with Decision Support , Test Results Review and Follow-up , and Clinician Communication will help practices establish systems that will allow them to be more confident that vital clinical information on the right patient will successfully reach clinicians who need it.
ONC and AHRQ, our partners in developing health IT safety tools, research, and education, will reach out to organizations and associations to encourage wider use of the SAFER Guides. We hope every sector of the healthcare industry will consider how they can make the SAFER Guides their own, including tailoring the content to their particular setting, specialty, and priorities. We look forward to feedback and hope everyone involved with health IT will consider how they can use the SAFER Guides to work on what must be a fundamental commitment and priority – using health IT to make patient care safer.
Please refer to the grading rubric. Submissions should be maximum 2 pages.
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Review the SAFER guide on the HealthIT.gov website and use the resources and tools to do a self-assessment of your place of work
**Self-Assessment Results Using SAFER Guides**
**Any Surprises in the Results:**
Upon conducting a self-assessment using the SAFER Guides at our workplace, one surprise was the extent of variability in how health information technology (IT) is implemented and optimized within our organization. While we expected some differences across departments, the assessment highlighted significant inconsistencies in practices and protocols related to patient identification, test results review and follow-up, and contingency planning. This variability underscores the importance of standardized processes and best practices to ensure patient safety and quality of care.
**Areas of Opportunities or Improvements:**
The self-assessment produced several areas of opportunities for improvement, including:
– Patient Identification: Our organization needs to implement standardized protocols for patient identification to reduce the risk of errors and ensure accurate matching of health information to the correct individual.
– Test Results Review and Follow-up: There is a need to enhance our processes for reviewing and following up on test results to ensure timely communication and appropriate action regarding abnormal findings.
– Contingency Planning: Our contingency planning processes require refinement to better address downtime events and ensure continuity of care during system outages or emergencies.
**Improvement Plan:**
Based on the self-assessment results, the following three items would be included in our improvement plan:
– Develop and Implement Standardized Patient Identification Protocols: Work with interdisciplinary teams to establish standardized protocols for patient identification at various points of care, including registration, admission, and clinical encounters.
– Enhance Test Results Management Processes: Implement automated alerts and reminders for abnormal test results, establish clear pathways for result acknowledgment and follow-up, and provide training to staff on the importance of timely review and communication of test findings.
– Strengthen Contingency Planning Efforts: Review and update contingency plans to ensure they address potential risks and vulnerabilities, conduct regular drills and simulations to test response procedures, and provide ongoing training to staff on contingency protocols and roles.
In conclusion, the self-assessment using SAFER Guides has provided valuable insights into areas for improvement in our organization’s health IT practices. By addressing these areas and implementing targeted improvement initiatives, we can enhance patient safety, optimize the use of health IT, and ensure the delivery of high-quality care.
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