2009 DOM Annual Report - Department of Medicine - University of ...

Department of MedicineHouse staff is also involved in QI and patient safety research and havepresented their work at national meetings. Thus QI and patient safetyin DOM had a successful year with improved quality and safe deliveryof care to our patients, education and training for the house staff andresearch activities.QUALITYExcellent performance on the quality care measures for CommunityAcquired Pneumonia (CAP), Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) and AcuteMyocardial Infarction (AMI) patients have been delivered by DOMclinicians during the year 2006-07. Ongoing house staff counseling,education and increasing awareness regarding patient safety hascontributed to improved care delivery. Other focused initiatives likeanticoagulation management, allergy documentation, reduction ofmedication errors and development of safe medication prescribinginitiatives has helped to prevent adverse events and improveappropriate care delivery. The development of several order sets hasfacilitated delivery of evidence based and safe care while providingeffective tool of education.RESEARCH AND OTHER SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIESEach of our QI and patient safety projects has been tied into researchactivities resulting in presentations at national meetings, publicationsand house staff research training. Many of these projects areimplemented in collaboration with Pharmacy, Institute of PerformanceImprovement, Institute of Aging and various DOM Divisions.The following lectures were organized for this series. Lecture andpanel format included: case presentation, discussion of safety andQI issues and take home messages regarding appropriate medicalmanagement and UPMC and national safety initiatives.1. Anticoagulation management2. Opioid management3. Malpractice and legal issues4. Informed consent5. Antibiotic management6. Hyperkalemia management7. Thromboembolic episodes (DVT and PE)8. End of life careNursing orientation, inservices, education material and self learningmodules are created with help and guidance of DOM Patient SafetyCommittee.Education Credit Units (ECU) dataHeena Sheth has facilitated small group sessions for the MSI and IIstudents and interviewed medical school applicants and served as amember on Admission Committee. This has accumulated a total of50+ ECUs for the department.Internal medicine house staff were mentored for a research projectthat was presented at the 2007 Society of General Internal Medicine(SGIM) national meeting in Toronto, Canada by Amit Raina, IshSingla, Adele Towers and Heena Sheth titled, “Anticoagulation withUnfractionated Heparin in Obese Patients”.In addition, Division faculty have contributed a significant amountof time and expertise to several hospital committees, such as PatientSafety Committee, Medicine Program Line, Infection Control, TotalQuality and Patient Safety Council, Safe Medication Practices and QICommittee (SMPQI), Allergy Taskforce and Adverse Drug Event (ADE)Committee and Anticoagulation Taskforce.The Delirium Prevention Program received funding of $75,000 fromJewish Healthcare Foundation in collaboration with the PittsburghInstitute of Aging.Physician champion award of $25,000 by Jewish HealthcareFoundation was received for the “Safe transfer of patients to skillednursing facilities” project which is ongoing.TEACHING ACTIVITIESExpert physicians from all specialty divisions have contributed todevelop guidelines and order sets to empower our trainees to deliverquality and safe care. Safety curriculum is being developed for themedicine house staff. Patient safety culture assessment survey wasimplemented last year and the safety topics of interest are includedin the lectures and seminars. Academic detailing for ADE reporting isalso occurring as part of the curriculum.62 Better medicine through research and education.