Online Program

Oral

The PROMISES (Proactive Reduction of Outpatient Malpractice: Improving Safety, Efficiency, and Satisfaction) project is an AHRQ-funded quality improvement randomized controlled quality improvement trial to assess and reduce malpractice risks in primary care practices in Massachusetts. Despite prior focus on high-impact inpatient cases, the outpatient setting, particularly primary care, is increasingly recognized as a major contributor to malpractice claims and risk. In order to study outpatient malpractice experience and identify areas for improvement, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, leading academic and safety partners, and the state’s two leading malpractice insurers came together to share data and lessons from primary care malpractice cases as part of an AHRQ-funded malpractice reduction initiative. In this session we will feature multiple presentations by participants and evaluators in the PROMISES Project, centered on the work of lead evaluation health services researcher Dr. Sara J. Singer whose work both embodies the historic contribution of Dr. Avedis Donabedian and has played a major role in the PROMISES Project. Her Donabedian Award address will review qualitative approaches to evaluation of health services quality improvement interventions in the PROMISES Project as well as her other work. Other speakers will include the lead physician, Dr. Gordon Schiff, the Project’s improvement Advisors (Nicholas Leydon and Judy Ling), and other research staff. We will present background on the problems the project was designed to address, baseline findings from staff and patients surveys as well as chart reviews, qualitative evaluations of the project based on exit interview with practice managers, and discussion of the actual interventions and lessons learned. In addition to Dr. Singer’s we will feature detailed descriptions of the work and interventions by the Project’s two improvement advisors, who spent extensive time working in and with the 16 intervention primary care practices.

Session Objectives: List the current amublatory patient safety and malpractice issues and challenges Assess the findings of the 4 Year AHRQ Ambulatory Malpractice and Safety PROMISES Project (Proactive Reduction of Malpractice: Improving Safety Efficiency and Satisfaction) Name the contributions of Dr. Sara Singer to the field of health services quality research and evaluation and the role of qualitative assessment in analyzing the results of the PROMISES Project.