Better together: Implementation of a patient safety solution committee at an academic cancer center.

Authors

null

Aarti Sonia Bhardwaj

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, New York, NY

Aarti Sonia Bhardwaj, Jessica Parra, Marissa Hussa, John Mato, Brooke Tsembelis, Priya Jain, Cardinale B. Smith

Organizations

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, New York, NY, Mount Sinai, New York, NY, Mount Sinai Health System, NY, NY, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY

Research Funding

No funding received
None.

Background: The Mount Sinai Health System oncology service line initiated a patient safety solution (PSS) committee to comprehensively review reported safety events in order to provide safe and high-quality care. This multi- and interdisciplinary committee creates a safe space to report events that caused harm, near misses and empowers all staff to be part of a just culture of safety. Here we describe the process and report on outcomes. Methods: The committee consists of nurses, advanced practice providers, physicians, pharmacists, social workers, IT analysts, and administrative staff, representing the oncology service line across inpatient and outpatient. Any staff member can enter incident reports that they believe warrant review into a software application. Our quality team reviews all events and then selects cases in which harm or near-harm was involved, for in-depth investigation to be presented at bi-weekly PSS meetings where cases are discussed, root causes are evaluated, and solutions are proposed. For each case, the committee votes on standard of care using the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Classifications tool. Often, smaller workgroups are formed to carry out quality improvement (QI) projects and corrective action plans (CAPs). All case data, including patient demographics, case summaries, outcomes, and ongoing plans are tracked using a custom REDCap survey. A question about the role of bias was added in December 2020 (yes/no/not enough information). Results: From January 2021 until March 2022, a total of 115 events were reviewed with an average of 23 events reviewed each quarter. Sociodemographic information on patients reviewed is in table. 41% of cases involved the inpatient setting. Issues with medication comprised 47% of cases, followed by patient identification (11%) and lack of escalation (10%). The most common CAPs involved education and counselling (47%), development of new policies (22%) and escalation to leadership (8%). In total, we have developed 29 new workflows, policies, and guidelines. Bias was felt to be involved 25% of the time, no bias 5% and not enough information 43% of the time. Conclusions: This process illustrates the importance of a multi- and interdisciplinary and transparent approach to clinical case and peer review to ensure the highest level of care. The outcomes of this committee have led us to optimize current policies, create new policies and procedures, new rounding structures and place a renewed focus on bias and discrimination.

Demographics of reviewed cases.


Cases Reviewed (n = 115)
Race/Ethnicity
N (%)
White
40 (35)
Black
28 (25)
Hispanic
25 (22)
Asian
13 (11)
Sex

Female
58 (51)
Male
57 (49)
Insurance

Medicare
45 (39)
Commercial
40 (35)
Medicaid
28 (25)

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2022 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session B

Track

Palliative and Supportive Care,Technology and Innovation in Quality of Care,Quality, Safety, and Implementation Science

Sub Track

Patient Safety

Citation

J Clin Oncol 40, 2022 (suppl 28; abstr 325)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2022.40.28_suppl.325

Abstract #

325

Poster Bd #

C32

Abstract Disclosures

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