Clinical safety projects improve patient care at UT Medicine

One patient safety project at UT Health Physicians means that diabetes indicators are more consistently monitored. Another means that fewer patients suffer potentially debilitating falls during outpatient visits.

The projects are among dozens born of a continuing medical education (CME) course and undertaken over the last four years by UT Medicine, the clinical practice of the Long School of Medicine. The Health Science Center established the Center for Patient Safety and Health Policy in 2008 under an initiative of the University of Texas System. The patient safety center offers an interdisciplinary course, Clinical Safety and Effectiveness, which is approved for clinician CME.

“The course is generating concrete results because it requires clinicians to design, implement and report results of a clinical effectiveness project, such as the diabetes monitoring initiative or the falls prevention initiative,” said center director Jan Patterson, M.D., M.S., associate dean for quality and lifelong learning in the School
of Medicine.