JCAHO patient safety practices posted on web

JCAHO patient safety practices posted on web

New patient safety center resource

The Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety has launched a new "in-development" Patient Safety Practices resource on the center's web site. The beta version of the new on-line database offers a collection of practices and interventions for preventing adverse events while also soliciting user suggestions for enhancing the content and functionality of the web site.

"This on-line resource of safe practices should be of major assistance to health care professionals in advancing their efforts to deliver safe, high-quality care," says Laura Botwinick, co-director, Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety. "This resource should also be of value to patients and their families in navigating the health care delivery system."

"Patient Safety Practices: An on-line resource for improving patient safety" is available at www.jcipatientsafety.org/psp and features links to more than 400 established sites that include a variety of respected domestic and international patient safety sources. The database is being introduced as a work in progress to encourage users to submit additional safe practices, which can be widely shared, and to suggest ways in which the database can become an even more helpful resource.

"This database is a simple way of getting practical important information into the hands of health care professionals and other provider organization staff to help them improve patient safety," say Peter Angood, MD, co-director, Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety. "This initiative underscores the center's commitment to translating available knowledge about patient safety into actionable information."

The introduction of the Patient Safety Practices site marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of the International Center for Patient Safety web site. The database draws heavily upon the Sentinel Event database that was created by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations a decade ago. It is organized under broad clinical event and health care process headings that are further broken down into categories and specific topic areas. The site also includes a brief survey that invites user participation in the database and suggestions for improving the utility of the site.