The Patient Safety, Quality and Operations Group has been active since the start of the academic year
We have been raising our profile by presenting at divisional faculty meetings, and have just a few left to visit. We are already seeing an uptick in event reporting, which is very encouraging news. We continue to encourage all faculty, fellows, residents, and staff to report safety events through ERS (ers.wusm.wustl.edu). A good rule of thumb is, if it bothers you, report it.
Vice Chair of Inpatient Safety, Quality and Operations
Vice Chair of Ambulatory Clinical Operations, Safety and Quality
New as of this year, we also have “Golden Glove Great Catch Patient Safety Awards.” Please nominate yourself or a colleague for the award based on actions that helped prevent an event from reaching a patient or helps advance the culture of safety in the department.
The DOM Epic Efficiency work group surveyed DOM providers about their experiences with the Electronic Health Record. The group is in the process of reviewing the more than 180 responses and will share the results and potential improvement opportunities in the coming months.
We have worked with the BJC Transfer Center to update notification procedures for accepting and consulting physicians. Now the transfer center will update both the accepting and consulting physicians via Epic if a planned patient transfer from another facility has been cancelled.
The Division of Allergy and Immunology is piloting a billable ambulatory eConsult process, which is now live in Epic and searchable as “Allergy eConsult” in the orders tab. The eConsults are ideal for questions that can be answered by chart review from a specialist and offer a quicker turn-around time (generally 1-3 business days) than an in-office evaluation. If the specialist does not feel the question can be answered by chart review alone, the ordering provider will be contacted to place a standard referral, and the patient will not be charged for the eConsult. More divisions may pilot the eConsult workflow soon, stay tuned.
Upcoming Event
Mark Your Calendars for the Clay Dunagan, MD, MS, Patient Safety & Quality Symposium 2025
Feb 28, 2025 (7 am – 3:20 pm). The symposium brings in national speakers on Safety and Quality as well as highlighting local initiatives.