Quality & Patient Safety

Center for Patient Safety Research

Overview

Led by Jason Adelman, MD, MS, the Center for Patient Safety Research is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, working across multiple departments including Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Nursing, Quality, Information Technology, and Biomedical Informatics. The mission of the Center for Patient Safety Research is to develop and test innovative strategies for improving patient safety using rigorous research methods. Through leveraging health information technology, the Center for Patient Safety Research conducts federally funded as well as hospital-supported research projects to test solutions that are replicable, scalable, and make a real difference in improving patient safety. Dr. Adelman developed and validated the Wrong-Patient Retract-and-Reorder Measure to quantify wrong-patient errors, the first Health IT safety measure endorsed by the National Quality Forum. Results of research using the measure to evaluate patient safety interventions have informed national regulations and recommendations issued by the Joint Commission and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Center for Patient Safety Research also seeks to disseminate the knowledge developed by our research. The Center for Patient Safety Research coordinates the Patient Safety Research Fellowship in Hospital Medicine, a 2-year training program for Medicine and Pediatric Hospitalists designed to train clinician-researchers in innovative, interdisciplinary, and systems-based approaches for improving the safety, quality, and effectiveness of care.

Mission

To design and apply rigorous research methods to develop innovative, scalable, and practical solutions to real-world safety problems that can be replicated locally and nationally to prevent medical errors and improve safety for all patients.

Vision

To be an international leader in the innovation, implementation and dissemination of replicable, scalable, and evidence-based solutions to improve patient care and achieve zero preventable harm.

Purpose

To develop and implement patient safety research initiatives, disseminate evidence-based best practices, and train generations of clinicians and researchers dedicated to patient safety.