Leading the Nation
in Patient Safety, Too
On February 22, 2000, when the Administration unveiled the recommendations of a special White House task force on patient safety, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo D. West, Jr. noted that VA had launched a multi-faceted initiative on patient safety three years ago. "Our veterans have earned the best and safest care that this nation can provide," West said. "At VA, we're committed to an unending search to provide better health care for more veterans."
According to the chief physician at the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA is leading the nation in identifying problems that result in medical errors. "VA's emphasis upon patient safety and ensuring consistently reliable, high-quality care has already resulted in improvements that meet or exceed national standards," said Dr. Garthwaite. In fact, in 1997, Dr. Garthwaite's predecessor, Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, convened the National Patient Safety Partnership as a public-private forum for sharing the best insights from some of the nation's leading healthcare organizations and scholars on healthcare safety. The next year, VA created its own National Center for Patient Safety to oversee a wide range of programs that bring safety concerns and new procedures into VA's system. And, Dr. Garthwaite is continuing the quest, saying, "Improvement in healthcare safety and quality requires honest, open communication, data, and commitment to challenge the status quo."
In fact, Dr. Jim Bagian,
a physician, engineer, former astronaut, and Director of VA's National
Center for Patient Safety, said, "Good enough is not good enough
when it comes to patient safety. We have to strive for the ideal."
In addition to the National Center for Patient Safety, VA has created four Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry to develop innovative solutions to critical challenges in patient safety.
| VA revised its Patient Safety Handbook and training program for healthcare workers. |
| VA pioneered the bar-code system for medications, cutting pharmaceutical medical errors by two-thirds. By July 1, 2000, bar-coding will be used in all VA care facilities. |
| VA introduced computerized patient records to remind healthcare providers of routine services, like immunizations and cancer screening. |
| VA facilities use electronic prescription entry to eliminate mistakes from illegible handwriting. |
| VA now requires, as part of its annual training requirements, that 50 percent of all permanent, full-time VHA employees receive 20 hours of safety-related continuing education or training. |
| VA recognizes innovative solutions to patient safety problems through its new Patient Safety Awards Program. |
