Facilities Continue to Improve Patient Safety Efforts
Monitoring the quality and safety of care received by members is important to Magellan. That is why we conduct an annual patient safety survey of all inpatient facilities in our network to measure the presence of critical organizational structures and policies as well as monitor key measures associated with patient safety.
Our two-page, faxable survey was developed with input from the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems, drawing from industry and accreditation patient safety standards for behavioral health. The survey addresses domains supported through published research and consensus among patient safety experts to be linked to overall patient safety. We report aggregate results in national meeting presentations, journal articles and policy-setting groups.
In 2009, we received a 68 percent response rate to the survey—an improvement over the 2008 rate of 64.5 percent. The survey also revealed improvements in the monitoring of several important items such as:
- Patient education on relapse prevention
- Coordination of care at discharge
- Referrals and time frames for behavioral health consultations.
We intend to build upon these increasingly positive results to see future improvements in the following areas:
- Policies for medication monitoring and education
- Policies and monitoring for sending discharge summary and labs to primary care physicians
- Avoiding delays in evaluation/testing/treatment, including monitoring of risk assessment at intake.
Magellan’s quality department, in accordance with standards established by national professional associations and accrediting bodies, works to improve patient safety by encouraging facilities to increase their monitoring and oversight of key patient safety measures. As part of this effort, Magellan sends letters to facilities identifying areas in need of improvement, outlining patient safety strategies, urging facilities to make patient safety a top priority, and encouraging them to participate in their local quality improvement and patient safety committees.
In response to this year’s survey results, Russell Dickinson, Magellan national director of quality and accreditation, said: “It is encouraging that inpatient facilities continue to focus on patient safety improvements, such as ensuring policies and monitoring efforts are in place for safety audits and patient education. But, in the best interest of our members, we also would like to emphasize the importance of monitoring the use of patient seclusion and restraints.”
In summary, Magellan believes that the implementation and monitoring of patient safety measures promotes wellness and reduces harmful outcomes for members receiving care and services. We appreciate the efforts of all who participated in our patient safety survey!