Ambulatory Patient Safety
A recent study led by a research team at a large health system in Boston found that patient harm events in ambulatory settings were common and often preventable. What do you think was the most common adverse event identified?
The findings highlighted that 7% of patients experienced adverse events, with 17.4% being serious. Medication-related issues accounted for the most—64% of events, while diagnostic errors are likely underreported. The study emphasizes the need for better measurement tools and interventions to improve outpatient safety. Researchers highlight the potential of automated surveillance to enhance safety monitoring. You can read more here: Boston-based researchers find outpatient adverse events are numerous, serious and understudied, Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety.
To read the study yourself, here is the full citation for the research article: Levine, D.M., et al. (2024, May). The Safety of Outpatient Health Care: Review of Electronic Health Records. Annals of Internal Medicine, Volume 177(6), DOI: 10.7326/M23-2063
Medical Mutual has a practice tip for Medication Safety in the Office Practice to help you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your assigned risk manager for further assistance or call the Medical Mutual Risk Department directly at 1-800-942-2791.
This article falls under CLINICAL/PATIENT SAFETY in the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) risk domains.
Risks associated with the delivery of care to patients, residents and other health care customers. Clinical risks include: failure to follow evidence based practice, medication errors, hospital acquired conditions (HAC), serious safety events (SSE), health care equity, opportunities to improve safety within the care environments, and others.