Patient Safety
Healthcare that uses a “just culture” approach to patient safety (David Marx) has an open, fair environment. It is where we learn from mistakes, and missteps are a chance to change to the system.
Patient safety is a driving force behind our business activities—with the safety, health and well-being of members being the number one priority. Topics that we focus on are medication safety, aligning care with clinical practice guidelines and building collaborative relationships with providers.
We encourage our providers to learn more about the ways Paramount promotes patient safety for our members. As always, we value your input and ask you to share your ideas about patient safety with us, at EmailPHCQuality@medmutual.com or by calling our quality improvement department.
Resources for Providers to Share
As a health care provider, you have the responsibility of patient safety. Paramount understands this objective and strives to help you meet this goal. That's why we make a variety of print materials from credible sources available for doctors and other providers to share with their patients. We select and design this patient literature with reading levels in mind and aim to use language that is simple and free of complex jargon.
Our goal for offering these materials is to foster dialogue between you and your patients. Below is a partial list of these resources. We will gladly supply printed copies upon request (English and Spanish versions when both are available), or find, create or reproduce others that may be of value to your practice.
Educational Offerings for Providers
To help busy health care practitioners and their office personnel stay up-to-dateup to date on patient safety issues, we at Paramount offers several educational resources. For example, we encourage practitioners to become familiar with the Physicians Practice Patient Safety Assessment, part of IHI's tools. Finally, we urge pPractitioners are encouraged to review AHRQ’s Impact Case Studies, evidence-based tools and resources to improve quality and safety of health care.
- Patient Safety Essentials Toolkit | Institute for Healthcare Improvement
- AHRQ Impact Case Studies
- Unacceptable and Dangerous Abbreviations (OPSI) do_not_use_list_9_14_18.pdf
- Words to Watch (Ask Me 3/NPSF)
Supporting Patient-Provider Communication
Low health literacy and limited English proficiency (LEP) are factors that can compromise patient safety and overall quality of care. Studies have shown that more than 36% of adults in our region do not have health literacy skills sufficient to make sound health care decisions for themselves and their families. We at Paramount advocate the use of carefully worded messages that can easily understood in the first place, and be effectively interpreted, signed, or translated.
As you know, communication is more than just a verbal exchange. Speaking, hearing, viewing, writing, reading, signing, and touching are all means of communication that may require a practitioner’s extra attention to ensure that a patient understands the message. We also encourage use of illustrations, models and the “Teach Back” method for patient-practitioner discussions that contain an element of patient safety risk – particularly informed consent, diagnosis of chronic conditions, and emergent care.
Learn more about arranging for Interpreter Services.
Quality of Care Investigations
As patient safety and well-being are the goals of our quality-of-care program, we take member feedback very seriously at Paramount. On occasion, a member or member’s representative may notify us of a concern about the quality of care received. We have a formal process to review the complaint. Our policy requires that we investigate quality of care reports to the fullest, and act accordingly. Each review is conducted by a medical director.
Depending on the findings, most reported issues are monitored and factored into recredentialing or contract renewal. In a small number of these cases, a corrective action plan may be required from the provider. Annually, our Medical Advisory Council reviews a summary report of quality- of- care complaints and applies the just culture approach to recommend program changes when they are needed.