From the Director
As we work to enhance the reporting system behind Oregon’s Patient Safety Reporting Program, we wanted to create a comprehensive overview of the relationship between reporting, transparency, and creating a culture of patient safety. Check out this month’s newsletter that contains a close-up look at adverse event reporting in Oregon.
Also new this month, the Commission released the Oregon Adverse Event Disclosure Guide. The guide is specifically designed to help Oregon’s physicians and healthcare organizations better understand the purpose of disclosure. The guide also provides resources to help healthcare organizations develop and improve disclosure programs.
These are only a few of the important patient safety programs offered by the Commission. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with the healthcare community and the public in service to our mission.
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Bethany Higgins
Commission Receives Funding for Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
Landmark drug settlement to fund consumer protection activities in Oregon
The tiny bacteria that transmit disease inevitably develop resistance to the antibiotics we use to treat those diseases. In preparation for a time when bacteria become resistant to current antibiotics, infectious disease specialists recommend not using new antibiotics until the old antibiotics have become ineffective. This concept is known as “antimicrobial stewardship.”
On March 20, 2012, Oregon Attorney General John Kroger announced a $3.4 million consumer drug settlement with the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, Inc. Pfizer allegedly used deceptive marketing claims for its prescription antibiotic Zyvox, a relatively new drug used to treat certain types of pneumonia and bacterial skin infections. Approximately 19 percent of the settlement funds will be used to promote antimicrobial stewardship in Oregon and to teach consumers about proper use of antibiotics.
The Oregon Patient Safety Commission will play a leading role in the effort by supporting hospitals across the state as they strengthen their antibiotic stewardship programs. More information about the Commission’s work in this area is coming soon.
Commission Honors Oregon’s Patient Safety Leaders
At a Patient Safety Awareness Week breakfast event on Friday, March 2, the Commission honored nine health care organizations that are leaders in Oregon’s Patient Safety Reporting Program. The award recipients included two ambulatory surgery centers, five hospitals, one nursing home, and one pharmacy that were recognized for their participation in the Patient Safety Reporting Program as well as their dedication to improving healthcare in Oregon.
The Commission’s website now lists all of the hospitals, nursing homes, and ambulatory surgery centers that met or exceeded the reporting program’s 2011 reporting standards.
NEW! Infection Prevention Toolkit for ASCs
The Commission recently published the Oregon Ambulatory Surgery Center Infection Prevention & Control Toolkit, which is specifically designed to provide guidance on the development and implementation of infection prevention programs that meet infection control standards outlined in Medicare’s Conditions of Coverage and State of Oregon administrative rules. The toolkit was developed to help Oregon’s ambulatory surgery centers implement infection prevention quality improvement projects, reduce infection risks, and better protect patients.
