Webinars this week: Patient Safety Organizations and EMS

Patient Safety Organizations are becoming an integral part of the safety of our our patients and caregivers. For the benefit of your agency and it’s people, we highly recommend you learn more about the benefits of joining a Patient Safety Organization(PSO). Being part of a PSO can reduce legal exposure to issues found during your QI process and lead to better, safer, patient care. We are currently aware of two great options: the Center for Patient Safety and Emergency Medical Error Reduction Group (EMERG).

We recognize that every agency operates differently and has different needs, and would like to provide you with two different webinar opportunities to learn more about what one or both of these PSO organizations have to offer.

In each of these webinars you will learn how participating with a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) can protect the quality and safety work in EMS, as well as support your EMS staff. Participating in a PSO can provide a number of benefits like improved patient safety and quality improvement, or becoming proactive in preventing adverse events and unsafe conditions instead of just being reactive.

We think this is very important, and we highly encourage you to attend one or both of these webinars to learn more about becoming a member of a PSO, and the benefits each offer their members.

Wednesday, July 22nd at 10 am PT
As a federally listed Patient Safety Organization (PSO), CPS is a private not for profit organization that works with EMS. There are many benefits to participating with a PSO, including federal protection and confidentiality privileges as well as shared learning about adverse events, near misses and unsafe conditions. The Center provides PSO Alerts and Safety Watches as well as offers best practices on up-to-date lessons learned in healthcare. In addition, it supports the creation and maintenance of a safety culture and offers services to measure and improve healthcare culture, such as a safety culture survey, Just Culture training, CUSP eduction, and more.

In this webinar you will hear from CPS members John Russell, MD, President of Cape County, MO, Jay Reich, MD of Kansas City, MO and Leo Hsu, MD and John Romeo of St. Charles County, MO, as well as CPS EMS Project Manager Lee Varner.

Thursday, July 23rd at 10 am PT
EMERG is a nationally recognized program built by and for emergency medical professionals to improve both provider and patient safety across the emergency medical system. EMERG is part of the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Research in EMS, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit that also established the anonymous, free , free event reporting system E.V.E.N.T.. Due to growing interest in improving safety culture, EMERG was formed and listed as a PSO and is able to federally protect safety and quality data help utilize this data to drive meaningful improvements and provide national benchmarking, sharing of best practices and education on a variety of subjects including Just Culture.

In this webinar you will hear from EMERG members Troy Hagen, CEO of CARE Ambulance Service, CA, and Brian Lacroix, President of Allina Health EMS, MN as well as Matt Womble, EMERG Executive Director.