Inside HRSA - January 2008
 
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November Meeting Highlights New Patient Safety and Pharmacy Collaborative

HRSA’s Center for Quality and Office of Pharmacy Affairs rolled out the agency’s new Patient Safety and Pharmacy Collaborative at a Nov. 16 meeting in Gaithersburg, Md.

“Getting on an Upward Spiral – Together: Taking Action to Improve Quality,” the second meeting in 2007 to showcase quality improvements in HRSA programs, focused on quality improvements in the areas of health literacy, patient safety and pharmacy services. More than 160 people attended, including HRSA grantees and other safety net providers, leaders of key national associations and organizations, and staff from HRSA bureaus and offices (see box).

The first meeting, held April 18 in Rockville, Md., highlighted the progress of HRSA’s health centers in achieving improved health outcomes in clinical quality performance measures such as access to prenatal care, appropriate immunizations, screening for colon, breast and cervical cancers, and chronic disease management.

Panel presentations on “HRSA Grantees Achieving Results in Core Measure Areas” and “Health Literacy: Putting It All Together” filled the morning session, followed by an afternoon panel on the new Patient Safety and Pharmacy Collaborative.

The new collaborative’s goals are to:

  • improve patient safety;
  • increase high-quality, cost-effective pharmacy services; and
  • improve health outcomes at HRSA’s health centers and among HRSA’s many partners.

“We’ve been working hard for months to identify ‘best practice’ models of patient safety and clinical pharmacy services from among our grantees and their partners,” said Center for Quality Director Denise Geolot. “We feel confident that these top-performers will set the standard for patient safety at health centers and throughout the country.”

The impetus for the new collaborative grew out of a 1999 Institute of Medicine study, To Err is Human, which found that medication errors injure 1.5 million people every year, and that for every dollar spent on ambulatory medications, another dollar is spent to treat new health problems caused by medications. In creating the collaborative, the Center for Quality also was responding to the rapid growth of pharmacy services in HRSA’s programs and among safety net partners.

  

HRSA's Jimmy Mitchell, Dennis Williams, Dennis Geolot, and Jim Macrae at the Nov. 16 meeting.
Left to right: HRSA’s Jimmy Mitchell, Dennis Williams, Dennis Geolot, and Jim Macrae at the Nov. 16 meeting.

More than 160 participants listened and learned about the new collaborative.
More than 160 participants listened and learned about the new collaborative.

The meeting was designed to generate interactive work and group discussions.
The meeting was designed to generate interactive work and group discussions.

“More and more, we’re finding that patient safety is closely intertwined with and affected by the level and quality of pharmacy services,” said Jimmy Mitchell, director of HRSA’s Office of Pharmacy Affairs. Mitchell chaired the afternoon panel and introduced six panelists who talked about their experiences and successes with patient safety and pharmacy services initiatives.

The first panelist, Dan Ford, a patient advocate from Tucson, Ariz., underscored the need to improve patient safety by telling how his wife’s health was ruined by a number of medical errors during a hysterectomy. Today, Ford devotes his life to making constructive changes in patient safety. He shared the following recommendations to improve patient outcomes:

  • Medications need to be updated and accurate.
  • “Hands-on” patient care is critical and nurses must play a key role.
  • Patients need to be “health literate” and learn to speak up and ask questions.
  • Patient advocates are essential across the spectrum of care.
  • Care providers need to show more compassion for their patients and really listen to them.
  • Mutual respect between patient and care provider is essential.
  • Patients should be partners in their own care and involved in planning treatment.
  • Family members should be invited to provide input into the patient’s medical records as supplemental information.

Other panelists explained the steps their organizations have taken to improve patient safety and pharmacy services. Dr. Steven Chen, of the JWCH Medical Clinic at the Weingart Center in Los Angeles, emphasized the importance of health literacy and told of plain-language materials the clinic has developed for Hispanic patients with limited English proficiency. Sandra Leal with the El Rio Community Health Center in Tucson, Ariz., said the center’s strategies to improve patient safety include making sure that patients understand drug regimens and integrating their culture and language into treatment plans.

A Sampling of Non-Federal Partners
in the New Collaborative

American Academy of Physician Assistants
American Association of Poison Control Centers
American Nurses Association
American Pharmaceutical Association
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Institute for Safe Medication Practices
National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors
National Association of Chain Drug Stores
National Association of Community Health Centers
National Rural Health Association

 

As the meeting wound down, participants were asked to identify ‘action steps’ to advance patient safety. Harry Hagel with the American Pharmacists Association plans to communicate with the association’s 120,000 pharmacist members on how they can get involved in the initiative via their member publication. Paul Moore, president elect of the National Rural Health Association, vowed to continue drawing attention to the nation’s need for pharmacists, not only in rural areas but throughout the country.

HRSA Deputy Administrator Dennis Williams closed the meeting by thanking participants for attending the meeting and for sharing their ideas and commitments to action. “The level of enthusiasm generated here today and this approach to developing ideas and future action is very, very effective,” he said. “We want to build on these ideas as we work to improve the world we live in.”

 

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