You Are Here: AHRQ Home > Quality & Patient Safety > Patient Safety & Medical Errors > AHRQ Partnerships in Implementing Patient Safety > Implementing a Program of Patient Safety in Small Rural Hospitals

Implementing a Program of Patient Safety in Small Rural Hospitals

Katherine Jones, Ph.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha
AHRQ Grant No. HS015822-01

Overview

This project provides tools to improve patient safety by engineering a culture of safety in small rural hospitals. These tools include resources for small rural hospitals to conduct and interpret the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Another aspect is creating an infrastructure for reporting, collecting, and analyzing data about voluntarily reported medication errors. The toolkit provides resources to engineer the components of a culture of safety in small rural hospitals, including:

Rural-adapted version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS) and Premier Customized Excel™ Data Tool.
Tools for small rural hospitals to benchmark and interpret HSOPS findings.
Staff training modules to implement MEDMARX™, a systematic medication error reporting program in small rural hospitals.
Tools to implement a just culture and a learning culture including root cause analysis in smallrural hospitals.
Evidence-based guidelines for successful shift changes and safe handovers.

Target Audience

Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, quality and safety professionals.

Health Care Setting

Small rural hospitals.

Toolkit Web Site

http://www.unmc.edu/rural/patient-safety/Toolbox/default.htm

Press Releases

AHRQ Awards More Than $8 Million To Further Implementation of Evidence-Based Patient Safety Findings
June 8, 2005

Presentation Slides

Measuring Improvement in Hospital Teamwork: Diffusion of TeamSTEPPS in Critical Access Hospitals
Date: September 15, 2009
Venue: AHRQ 2009 Annual Meeting
http://www.ahrq.gov/about/annualconf09/goodridge_Jones_Nordhausen.htm

Challenges to Improving Safety at the Point of Care Building Infrastructure: Lessons Learned from Critical Access Hospitals
Date: September 9, 2008
Venue: AHRQ 2008 Annual Meeting
http://www.ahrq.gov/about/annualmtg08/090908slides/Jones.htm

Impact Case Studies

Clarinda Regional Health Center—Posted April 2010
http://www.ahrq.gov/about/casestudies/ptsafety/ps2010e.htm

Return to Contents