United States Department of Veterans Affairs

National Center for Patient Safety

The Patient Safety Initiative


Patient Safety Initiative

In the summer of 2006, NCPS introduced the Patient Safety Initiative (PSI).

PSI was established to stimulate creative approaches to complex patient safety issues, and many successful projects have been funded in the first two years of the program.

  • Twenty-six proposals were funded in fiscal year 2006.
  • Eighteen were funded in fiscal year 2007.

VA patient safety professionals have used PSI as an opportunity to develop projects with a demonstrable impact on their patient safety programs; projects with well-defined measures and strong rationales.

Examples of Topics

  • Falls Prevention
  • Increase Flu Vaccination Rates
  • Lifting Injury Prevention
  • Process for Baseline Counts of Adverse Events
  • Elopement/Wandering Prevention
  • Pressure Ulcer Prevention
  • Suicide Prevention

Examples of Success Stories

Decrease in fall rate by 25 percent — VA Medical Center, Augusta, Ga.

  • The grant was used for promotional items and costs of a “Falls Fair,” which covered topics such as the use of the Morse Fall Scale and different types of fall preventions and interventions.

Increased flu vaccination rate: 51 percent to 67 percent — VA Medical Center, Tomah. Wis.

  • The facility’s promotion strategies were based on incentives. For instance, those who took a flu shot received a T-shirt.
  • Employees and patients were offered flu shots in the same area, streamlining the operation.
  • To increase accessibility, the shots were also provided in all nursing homes and medical wards and on all shifts.

Learn More

Read details about the funded proposals in the May/June 2007 and Sept/Oct. issues of TIPS. Return to top of page