Patient Safety & Quality
The Importance of Patient Safety & Quality (PS&Q)
Patient Safety is a foundational piece of the philosophy of Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC). NGMC is dedicated to building Safety CHAMPS in healthcare. That said, there are numerous ways that safety and quality can be impacted. Wellness, fatigue, unwillingness to ask questions, or even not having the willingness to speak up, can all lead to increased risk which result in potential safety incidents and/or errors. The ACGME believes in the importance of education around patient safety and quality improvement, stating the following in their program requirements:
“All physicians share responsibility for promoting patient safety and enhancing quality of patient care. Graduate medical education must prepare residents to provide the highest level of clinical care with continuous focus on the safety, individual needs, and humanity of their patients."
Furthermore, the ACGME says the following specifically about Patient Safety:
“A culture of safety requires continuous identification of vulnerabilities and a willingness to transparently deal with them. An effective organization has formal mechanisms to assess the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of its personnel toward safety in order to identify areas for improvement.”
Patient Safety and Quality are monthly topics as a part of our Cornerstones of Resident Education (CORE) curriculum.
Curriculum & Events
Residents will participate in the required bi-monthly Cornerstones of Resident Education (CORE) Didactic Series in which they will engage in meaningful activities and discussion on numerous topics. The PS&Q curriculum is developed using evidence-based research and is carefully curated to provide the most meaningful and applicable information, tools, and experiences to our residents.
In addition to the required CORE sessions, residents will have opportunities to join committees and participate in other voluntary events designed to foster connection between fellow residents, faculty, staff, and their partners and families.
Examples of topics and activities include:
- Variance/Sentinel Event Walk-throughs
- Root Cause Analysis Training
- Developing a Problem Statement for QI
- Various Simulation-based events/activities
- Giving and Receiving Feedback (Residents as Teachers)
- Variance Event Reporting
Contact
