When choosing a health care facility, the executive director of the Nebraska Coalition for Patient Safety said potential patients should add one more query to their list of questions: “Do you self-report adverse events?”
And if the answer is “no,” Ann McGowan said, maybe you should consider getting your knee replacement – or whatever it may be – somewhere else.
NCPS is an independent, nonprofit, federally-designated patient safety organization (PSO), founded by the Nebraska Academy of Physician Assistants, Nebraska Hospital Association, Nebraska Medical Association, Nebraska Nurses Association and Nebraska Pharmacists Association. It is headquartered at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s School of Allied Health Professions.
Its aim is to create a culture of safety in Nebraska health care by encouraging, assisting and collaborating in the self-reporting of medical errors and patient-safety events by health care organizations across the state. The reports are then studied, and de-identified and shared across NCPS membership, in hope of avoiding a repeat of similar incidents.
“By sharing this information with others, hospitals can learn to prevent errors before they happen,” said Stephen Smith, M.D., NCPS president and chief medical officer at The Nebraska Medical Center.
According to its 2012 annual report, NCPS has trained more than 250 professionals from 59 health care organizations in the use of root-cause analysis – a tool to analyze and learn from adverse events.
Half of Nebraska’s hospitals have joined the coalition – but half have not. It’s tough to crack the culture of keeping our mistakes to ourselves, said Darwin Brown, assistant professor in UNMC’s physician assistant education program, who serves as NCPS treasurer.
But those incidents are happening, whether the public hears about them or not. A 2008 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report found that 13.5 percent of Medicare beneficiaries surveyed experienced a serious adverse event during their hospital stay. An additional 13.5 percent experienced smaller events which resulted in temporary harm.
If we hear of an incident, we may be less apt to use that hospital. “But I tend to think the opposite,” McGowan said. “It means they’re engaged. They know what’s going on.”
We all make mistakes – even health care organizations.
There’s only one way to find out if a health care organization is learning from its mistakes, McGowan said: Ask.
For more information on NCPS, or to speak with McGowan, call 402-559-8421 or go to www.nepatientsafety.org.
NEBRASKA COALITION FOR PATIENT SAFETY – MEMBER HOSPITALS
Albion — Boone County Health Center
Alliance — Box Butte General Hospital
Alma — Harlan County Health System
Atkinson — West Holt Medical Services
Auburn — Nemaha County Hospital
Aurora — Memorial Community Health
Beatrice — Beatrice Community Hospital
Cambridge — Tri Valley Health System
Central City — Litzenburg Memorial County Hospital
Columbus — Columbus Community Hospital
Cozad — Cozad Community Hospital
Creighton — Avera Creighton Hospital
David City — Butler County Health Care Center
Fairbury — Jefferson Community Health Center
Fremont — Fremont Area Medical Center
Geneva — Fillmore County Hospital
Grand Island — St. Francis Medical Center
Holdrege — Phelps Memorial Health Center
Kearney — Good Samaritan Hospital
Lexington — Lexington Regional Health Center
Lincoln — Nebraska Heart Hospital; Bryan Health; St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center
McCook — Community Hospital
Nebraska City — St. Mary’s Community Hospital
Neligh — Antelope Memorial Hospital
Norfolk — Faith Regional Health Services
North Platte — Great Plains Regional Medical Center
Omaha — Alegent Health Bergan Mercy Medical Center; Alegent Health Immanuel Medical Center; Alegent Health Lakeside; Creighton University Medical Center; Nebraska Methodist Health System; Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital; The Nebraska Medical Center
O’Neill — Avera St. Anthony’s Hospital
Osmond — Osmond General Hospital
Papillion — Alegent Health Midlands Hospital
Pawnee City — Pawnee County Memorial Hospital
Pender — Pender Community Hospital
Schuyler — Alegent Health Memorial Hospital
Seward — Memorial Health Care Systems
St. Paul — Howard County Medical Center
Superior — Brodstone Memorial Hospital
Tilden — Tilden Community Hospital
Valentine — Cherry County Hospital
Wahoo — Saunders Medical Center
Wayne — Providence Medical Center
West Point — St. Francis Memorial Hospital
NEBRASKA COALITION FOR PATIENT SAFETY – BOARD MEMBERS
Officers (all from Omaha):
President — Stephen B. Smith, M.D., The Nebraska Medical Center
Vice president — Katherine Jones, Ph.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)
Treasurer — Darwin Brown, UNMC physician assistant
Secretary — Patty Scholting, UNMC physician assistant
Other board members:
Columbus — Dan Rosenquist, M.D., Columbus Family Practice Association
David City — Don Naiberk, Butler County Health Care Center
Grand Island — Paula Riesberg, St. Francis Medical Center
Lincoln — Kathy Corbett, Nebraska Wesleyan University; Doug Elting, Visions in Architecture; Cary Ward, M.D., St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center
Norfolk — Laura Hoogestraat, Faith Regional Health Services
Omaha — Ed DeSimone, Ph.D., Creighton University Medical Center
West Point — Carol Kampschneider, St. Francis Memorial Hospital