Advancing the science of patient safety
Shekelle PG., Pronovost PJ., Wachter RM., Taylor SL., Dy SM., Foy R., Hempel S., McDonald KM., Ovretveit J., Rubenstein LV., Adams AS., Angood PB., Bates DW., Bickman L., Carayon P., Donaldson L., Duan N., Farley DO., Greenhalgh T., Haughom J., Lake ET., Lilford R., Lohr KN., Meyer GS., Miller MR., Neuhauser DV., Ryan G., Saint S., Shojania KG., Shortell SM., Stevens DP., Walshe K.
Despite a decade's worth of effort, patient safety has improved slowly, in part because of the limited evidence base for the development and widespread dissemination of successful patient safety practices. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality sponsored an international group of experts in patient safety and evaluation methods to develop criteria to improve the design, evaluation, and reporting of practice research in patient safety. This article reports the findings and recommendations of this group, which include greater use of theory and logic models, more detailed descriptions of interventions and their implementation, enhanced explanation of desired and unintended outcomes, and better description and measurement of context and of how context influences interventions. Using these criteria and measuring and reporting contexts will improve the science of patient safety. © 2011 American College of Physicians.