GP.3. MEDSAFE-Project
Web-editor's note (June 2007): The MEDSAFE Project is a cooperative patient safety initiative from the USA that provides hospitals a syste-
matic assessment of their processes and structure in relation to the safe use of medications. Using focused education sessions and a nationally validated survey tool, MEDSAFE shares medication safety best practices & helps hospitals understand gaps in their organizations’ processes.
MEDSAFE-Project (Austria)
A project which we initiated two years ago deals with the improvement of medication use and avoiding medication errors in hospitals. The project, based on the MEDSAFE-Project, is designed to promote collaboration, discussions, and benchmarking in hospitals interested in demonstrating the relationship between performance, outcomes, and accountability. The focus of the project is safe practices in medication use, a topic chosen because of the relative clarity in understanding the steps undertaken during medication use in a hospital. Further, the focus on medication-use practices is seen as a more “acceptable” approach to the topic of safer practices and their impact upon patients. It is expected that once medication use practices are continuously monitored and analyzed, participants will be ready to tackle less well-defined yet equally important issues of medical decision-making and safety implications for patients. The strategy and the model of the approach combines user and leadership education along with the establishment of tools and methods to identify various organizational processes known or expected to promote dimensions of safer practices.
We started this project with a small number of hospitals, together with the Center for Performance Sciences, which has established an ongoing measurement system. First, there was a survey that each hospital had to complete in order to establish a baseline for organizational structures, processes, activities, and available technology. This questionnaire, developed by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) in the United States, relates to medication use but also identifies elements of the hospital’s environment that promote the health care professional’s desire to provide the safest care possible. The questionnaire reflects the realities of the Austrian health care system and hospitals.
Author: Dr.Maria Woschitz-Merkaè, Federal Ministry of Health and Women, Dep. IV/3, Vienna/Austria (e-mail: Maria.Woschitz-Merkac@bmgf.gv.at).
Responsible for the MEDSAFE Project:
- Dr. Reli Mechtler,
IPG-Department of Health System,
Research University of Linz,
Altenberger Straße 69,
A-4040 Linz, Austria
email: reli.mechtler@jk.uni-linz.ac.at
