Pacific Business Group on Health Surveys Hospitals’ Medical Error Reduction Efforts
The Pacific Business Group on Health, a not-for-profit consortium of health care purchasers, is asking health plans to complete a survey on the "medical error reduction efforts" of hospitals they work with, the Sacramento Bee reports (Rapaport, Sacramento Bee, 7/11). The survey will track the use of standards established by the Leapfrog Group, a coalition of businesses and health care purchasers, which are designed to reduce the number of injuries and deaths caused by medical errors. The standards include:
- Using computer physician order entry to eliminate prescription errors caused by poor handwriting;
- Using evidence-based hospital referral to "encourage" patients to frequent hospitals with "better outcomes"; and
- Staffing intensive care units with physicians certified in critical care.
The survey will end in mid-September, with the results available on the Leapfrog Group and PBGH Web sites (Leapfrog Group release, 7/9).
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