REPORT OF TMA PRESIDENT
PRES Report 1-A-06
Subject: TMA Select Committee on Patient Safety
Presented by: Robert T. Gunby Jr., MD, President
Background
Improving physician awareness of medicine's role in patient safety is a major theme of this year's presidency. Last summer, a distinguished group of physicians was asked to serve and consult on the Select Committee on Patient Safety. Chaired by the president, Michael Speer, MD, and Susan Strate, MD, co-chair the activity. The committee met in September at TMA Summit 2005, at the Winter Conference, and TexMed 2006. The bulk of the committee's work is done through four subcommittees (Education, Clinical Intervention and Practice Management, Image, and Legislative) via conference calls and e-mail.
Scope of Effort
Because of the vast nature of the issue of patient safety, the committee has been steadfast in focusing on development of evidence-based CME programs, participation in the Institute for Health Care Improvement 100,000 Lives Campaign coordinated through TMF Health Quality Institute, and development of a physician and patient campaign to raise awareness of three priority areas. Those campaigns are as follows:
ABCs of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) to improve delivery of evidence-based medicine to patients following a heart attack. A stands for delivery of aspirin, B for prescribing beta blockers upon discharge, and C for counseling for smoking cessation.
Surgical Care Infection Prevention to reinforce and educate physicians of the infection risk for shaving the surgical site and to remove razors from hospital operating rooms.
Medication reconciliation to improve processes and awareness of medications that patients are taking. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita demonstrated an acute need for better patient education and awareness.
The TMF Health Quality Institute is supplying physician informational support and content development. These campaigns tie in nicely with several goals TMF Health Quality Institute must achieve as part of its duties to comply with the 8th Scope of Work. Brochures, posters, and wallet cards will be developed and distributed in the spring to physicians and a TMA-led patient education campaign will follow. Two county medical societies (Dallas and Houston) are actively involved with the committee's efforts and a key role is identification and participation of key physician hospital medical staff leaders in these campaigns. Staff will carefully track media and data from TMF Health Quality Institute showing improvements. Additionally, staff has included patient safety information in Dr. Gunby's editorial tours and solicited speaking engagements for him from county medical societies and hospital medical staffs.
Educational Programs
In addition to these three campaigns, Howard Marcus, MD, an Austin Internist and former chair of the TMLT board, has developed a three-hour CME program that was first shown during the winter conference. Plans to take this program on the road to several Texas markets are under discussion. Included in this program will be a TMA videotaped interview of Ken Shine, MD, past president of the Institute of Medicine, discussing the physician role in patient safety. Staff is securing speakers for TexMed 2006 for a panel presentation on patient safety.
Enduring Material
A Web-based patient safety resource center with excellent and timely links to patient safety research, translational approaches, physician tools, and patient education materials has also been developed. TMA's Knowledge Center plays a vital role in designing a user friendly site with ongoing quarterly review of the site's holdings from TMA key staff. This site is located on the TMA home page and efforts will be undertaken through communication vehicles to raise awareness of its existence and benefits.
TMA Patient Safety Foundation Grant
Recruiting talented staff is underway. It is envisioned that process and quality improvement educational materials will be developed and available as part of the consultative service TMA provides to physicians seeking implementation of an electronic health record. CME sessions and Web-based CME also will be available.
TMA House of Delegates: TexMed 2006