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Press Release
Maryland Patient Safety Center Is
Established
Center to address medical errors in hospitals and nursing homes
BALTIMORE, MD (June 18, 2004) - The Maryland Health Care Commission
(MHCC) today announced the selection of the Maryland Hospital Association
(MHA) and the Delmarva Foundation (Delmarva) to jointly develop and
run the new Maryland Patient Safety Center. The two organizations will
provide funding for the patient safety center for three years.
"Maryland is one of the first states in the country to pioneer
an initiative such as this and we hope this effort will achieve real
progress in improving health care safety through education," said
Donald E. Wilson, MD, MACP, chairman of the MHCC. "It provides
us with a vehicle where health care providers like hospitals and nursing
homes can work together to study the causes of unsafe practices and
put practical improvements in place."
The activities of the Maryland Patient Safety Center will take a non-regulatory,
collaborative approach to bring providers together to develop and implement
strategies and systems to improve safety. Utilizing the Veterans Health
Administration's model for improving safety, the Center will host a
confidential data repository for errors and near misses in care delivery,
as well as serve as the primary facilitator for education and collaboration
among health care providers.
"This is part of a multi-pronged strategy," said Barbara
McLean, Executive Director of the Maryland Health Care Commission. "The
Patient Safety Center supplements the state's current regulatory and
statutory requirements for hospitals and nursing homes to report errors
resulting in death or serious disability to the Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene and the disciplinary activities of the professional
boards.
The Center will also involve the participation of the two organizations
representing nursing homes in Maryland, the Health Facilities Association
of Maryland and Mid Atlantic LifeSpan; and the schools of medicine at
the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland.
The Patient Safety Center is scheduled to begin operating this summer,
and will initiate data collection systems by early next year. It is
anticipated that patient safety initiatives will expand from hospitals
and nursing homes to include ambulatory surgery centers and other care
settings after the initial three-year period.
"We are very pleased that MHA and Delmarva both shared our vision
of developing a Center to promote safer health care practices and stepped
up to the plate with funding for three years," Ms. McLean said.
"It will allow us over time to attract additional funding from
outside philanthropic organizations that are not interested in funding
operational aspects of the center."
The Center's concept is based on the recommendations laid out in the
Institute of Medicine's report, 'To Err is Human,' released in 1999.
The MHCC was given authority to designate the Center through legislation
sponsored by Delegate Brian McHale and passed in 2003.
Both MHA and Delmarva have been leaders in patient safety and quality
initiatives. The MHA represents all of Maryland's hospitals and has
been recognized for its involvement in quality of care and patient safety
through the MEDSAFE initiative (a state-based program designed to reduce
medication errors), their Quality Indicator Project, and educational
activities through the Maryland Healthcare Education Institute (MHEI).
Delmarva Foundation, a national not-for-profit quality improvement
organization, has been working with hospitals, physicians, home health
agencies and nursing homes in Maryland for more than 30 years. As Maryland's
Medicare quality improvement organization (QIO), Delmarva works to ensure
that healthcare providers offer Medicare recipients the highest caliber
of care. Delmarva also is responsible for the implementation and ongoing
improvements to the MHCC Hospital Performance Evaluation Guide.
Dr. William Minogue, former Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs
at Suburban Hospital, has been named Director of the Center, which will
be housed in MHA's not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) research subsidiary, LogicQual
Research Institute.
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