TMA Launches New Patient Safety Course For Physicians, Students

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 21 Aug 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Believing foremost in the dictum, "first do no harm," the physicians of the Texas Medical Association (TMA) are launching a new education tool aimed at promoting patient safety.

TMA has initiated a new online continuing medical education (CME) course for physicians and medical students focusing on patient safety and preventing medical errors. The course is free to all who want to take it; the only charge ($30) is for administering CME credit.

"It's critical for the health care of the country, for health care in the state of Texas, and for the safety of our patients to raise awareness with students, with residents, and with our physician population," said Don N. Peska, DO, a member of TMA's Subcommittee for Academic Physicians, in TMA's Texas Medicine magazine. The subcommittee developed the new patient safety curriculum.

The concept began as a tool to teach medical students but quickly caught on as a valuable course for practicing physicians as well. The curriculum is drawing interest from health care professionals across the nation and Texas' physicians, medical schools, and other health institutions. They believe it is important because the Institute of Medicine reports medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in hospitals.

The course examines such issues as controlling medication errors, improving communication with patients of limited English proficiency, and eliminating latent errors built into patient care systems within hospitals. The curriculum also will address incorrect medication dosing, adverse drug interactions, surgical site identification, improper equipment maintenance, transfer of care, and other issues.

For example, the course teaches a list of potentially confusing prescription abbreviations that The Joint Commission, a leading health care accreditation and patient safety group, says doctors should never use. One is "TIW," intended to mean "three times a week" but sometimes is misinterpreted as "three times daily."

"We are calling attention to those specific abbreviations to demonstrate where they are confusing and why they shouldn't be used," said Dr. Peska. The curriculum's overarching theme is establishing best practices to prevent medical errors.

While medical schools and residency training programs statewide teach the curriculum to prospective physicians, practicing doctors can take the course online through TMA. The association is accredited to offer official CME credit to physicians who complete the course (AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM). All physicians regularly study new and improved ways to care for their patients through CME courses.

Physicians from The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, UT Health Center at Tyler, the University of North Texas, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and Texas A&M University System Health Science Center wrote the curriculum. The academic subcommittee, featuring members from every Texas medical school, reviewed and approved the work. Dr. Peska and Lisa Nash, DO, director of the family medicine residency program at UTMB, oversaw the effort. Dr. Nash chairs the subcommittee.

Dennis B. Dove, MD, chair of TMA's Council on Medical Education, praised the effort. "This groundbreaking work helps to fill a void of educational material on a critically important topic for a variety of [health care] audiences," said Dr. Dove.

TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing 42,000 physician and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 120 component county medical societies around the state. TMA's key objective since 1853 is to improve the health of all Texans.

http://www.texmed.org

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