Communication in Patient Safety

by Howard Epps, MD

About this Course

---

About this Module: Communication in Patient Safety

Communication deficiencies play important roles in the generation of medical errors. This module discusses physician-physician, physician-patient, and physician-staff communication and provides strategies for the recognition of difficulties and subsequent improvement. Pre-operative counseling includes a discussion with the patient of each component of the acronym PREPARED to allow for an informed decision regarding surgery. The need for full disclosure is discussed along with techniques to break "bad news."

View Registration Information

View Accreditation Statement

View Learning Objectives

The Patient Safety Curriculum

The Patient Safety Curriculum is designed to provide an overview of the key patient safety issues confronting the orthopaedic surgeon today. The curriculum is composed of seven learning modules which introduce critical concepts and terms related to patient safety, review the recent literature, outline tools and a template for utilizing the curriculum in Mortality and Morbidity Conferences, and provide an evidence-based discussion of common topics in orthopaedics that have direct impact on the safety of our patients. The specific topics covered correspond with sentinel events in orthopaedics as determined by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and based on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 2001 report, Making Healthcare Safer.

The new curriculum is modeled around the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's six core competencies. Currently, these competencies are utilized to guide the education and assess the progress of residents and fellows. In the future, the process of certification and re-certification will be organized around these competencies. The Patient Safety Curriculum is especially valuable in helping to satisfy educational requirements in System-Based Practice and Practice-Based Learning for those in training and those in practice.

Course Format

This module consists of three parts, which must be completed in order:

• A six-item pretest
• A multimedia slide lecture (61slides, approximately 20 minutes)
• A six-item posttest

In addition, participants must complete an evaluation before they may apply for CME credit.

You may complete this module in as many sessions as you need. When you return to the module, you will be taken to the place at which you left off.

ACCME Accreditation Statement

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons designates this educational activity for a maximum of 0.75 category 1 credits toward the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those credits that he/she actually spent in the activity.