The MedStar Health Institute for Quality and Safety (MIQS) aligns with and catalyzes the intellectual and implementation power across MedStar Health to make healthcare safer, continuously improve quality outcomes, and engage patients and family members. The cumulative efforts of MedStar Health professionals, on our journey to becoming a High Reliability Organization, have achieved notable results, including reducing serious safety events by 50 percent across MedStar Health.
For more information on MIQS’ partners, contact QSinfo@medstar.net.
MedStar Health partners include
MedStar Health Risk Management
Seeking to replace the medical liability culture of “defend and deny” that is so prevalent in this country with a culture of immediate and compassionate response, MedStar Health’s Risk Management program leads MedStar Health’s efforts to resolve patient-provider conflicts at the point of care.
To accomplish this objective, the Risk Management program tries to ensure that whenever a patient has suffered an adverse and unexpected outcome, MedStar Health’s response is to provide support to our associates, while at the same time providing the patient with a full and honest disclosure, an apology when appropriate, and a fair resolution, including compensation, also when appropriate. We believe that doing so reduces medical professional liability claims and fosters immediate system learning regarding patient safety improvements.
National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare
The MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare is the largest human factors program within a healthcare system in the United States. This innovative team is improving the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare delivery through application of safety science and human factors, a scientific discipline that optimizes systems, processes, and devices to be consonant with how humans perform, think, work, and interact.
Human factors engineers are deployed across MedStar Health immediately, as part of a Go Team, to investigate the cause of a serious safety event. This comprehensive approach is the basis of an event review analysis, a much broader investigation than the typical “root cause analysis” that tends to identify individuals responsible versus deeper underlying causes, such as ill-designed processes, that lead to error.
MedStar Health Research Institute
From bench to bedside to community, MedStar Health Research Institute investigators are involved in pre-clinical investigation, investigator-initiated studies, large phase III multi-center trials, and testing clinical application of new advances in clinical practice. As part of a multi-hospital academic medical system spanning two cities, MedStar Health Research Institute specializes in healthcare delivery and outcomes research in tertiary-, specialty-, and community-based hospital settings that serve one of the most diverse patient populations in the United States.
MedStar Health Simulation Training & Education Lab
The MedStar Health Simulation Training & Education Lab (SiTEL) is a comprehensive educational organization within MedStar Health that supports the health system’s commitment to continuous learning and striving to improve the quality of care and patient safety. MedStar Health SiTEL deploys a blended model of interactive online and face-to-face training, 3-D virtual simulation, and hands-on, high-fidelity simulations, as well as performance support tools that can be used during the actual delivery of care.
MedStar Institute for Innovation
With the mantra “Think Differently,” the MedStar Institute for Innovation (MI2) is about creating a vibrant innovation ecosystem at MedStar Health to transform care and advance health. MI2 has distinctive centers of expertise, including the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, The MedStar Health Simulation Training & Education Lab (MedStar Health SiTEL), the Center for Health Influence and Engagement, and MedStar Health Inventor Services, which serves to transform MedStar Health associates’ ideas into commercial form, and forges strategic alliances with complementary organizations to advance health.