Announcements

AHRQ to cosponsor conference on working conditions and patient safety

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is joining with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH/CDC), the Veteran's Health Administration (VHA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID/CDC) in sponsoring the conference, "Enhancing Working Conditions and Patient Safety: Best Practices." The conference will be held October 17-18, 2000, in Pittsburgh, PA.

Conference participants will discuss practical approaches to simultaneously improving the quality of patient care and working conditions for health care workers. They also will share "best practices," describing both the difficulties encountered and practical examples of successes that can be used by others. Best practices are programs, policies, or procedures that reduce illness and injuries and/or improve well-being among patients, as well as among health care workers. Best practices encourage health care workers and organizations to value safety through attention to organization of work and the physical environment, by encouraging near-miss and error reporting, and by systematically evaluating program effectiveness.

This will be a working meeting, with common themes such as organizational culture and safety presented as plenary topics and working group sessions organized by focus interest areas. Emphasis will be on sharing challenges, pitfalls, and solutions.

This conference will be useful to a diverse audience, including representatives from health care organizations and management, frontline workers and their representatives, researchers from government and academia, and representatives from accrediting bodies, insurance systems, and quality measurement organizations.

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