AHRQ Awards More Than $8 Million To Further Implementation of Evidence-Based Patient Safety Findings

Press Release Date: June 8, 2005

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced that it will award over $8 million in funding for 15 projects over 2 years that are designed to help clinicians, facilities, and patients implement evidence-based patient safety practices.

The 15 Partnerships in Implementing Patient Safety grants will use interventions that are ready to be implemented now and will have both an immediate and a long-term impact. Over half the projects focus on reducing medication errors, an area known to be in need of patient safety solutions. Many of the projects will apply interventions to improve health care team communications, also a well-known source of errors.

In addition, the interventions are designed to be generalizable to other settings of care. A key component of the projects is the development of a set of free, publicly available toolkits for health care providers and others that will share lessons learned on how to best implement patient safety practices. For example, toolkits will be developed to help patients keep track of their prescription medicines when they are admitted to or discharged from the hospital.

"Research shows that medical errors can be reduced through improved team work and adoption of information technology. These projects build on our commitment to make medications safer and ensure that health care providers have the tools they need to deliver high quality health care," said HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt.

"These grants build on AHRQ's investment in patient safety research over the past 5 years and support the implementation of innovative interventions aimed at reducing medical errors and improving health care for all Americans," said AHRQ Director Caroyn M. Clancy, M.D. "Providers across the country will have access to the kinds of practical tools they have been waiting for to implement in their own facilities—ones that have been proven to be effective."

The projects span a wide spectrum of settings and populations, including small rural facilities and large urban hospitals, clinics, and emergency departments, as well as pediatric and geriatric patients. Because some of the projects involve health systems that have locations in multiple states, the research projects will span nearly half of the States.

For a complete listing of the 15 projects, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/pips.htm.

For more information, please contact AHRQ Public Affairs: (301) 427-1862 or (301) 427-1865.

Internet Citation:

AHRQ Awards More Than $8 Million To Further Implementation of Evidence-Based Patient Safety Findings. Press Release, June 8, 2005. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2005/pipspr.htm