Implementing the Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP) to Improve Patient Safety in an Academic Primary Care...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Safety
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• Patient safety efforts traditionally prioritize inpatient settings, overlooking ambulatory care risks.
• The Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) has demonstrated success in improving safety within hospitals.
• In 2014, CUSP was adapted and implemented in an academic primary care practice setting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and impact of implementing the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) in an ambulatory primary care setting.
• To identify specific patient safety concerns within the primary care practice through staff assessments.
• To evaluate the effect of CUSP implementation on the safety climate and teamwork.

Main Methods:

• Staff and clinicians received training on the science of safety as part of CUSP implementation.
• A two-question safety assessment survey was administered to identify practice-specific safety concerns.
• The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was used for pre-post comparison to measure changes in safety climate and teamwork.

Main Results:

• High participation rates were achieved for safety training (96%) and safety assessments (100%).
• Top identified safety concerns included medications (28.2%), diagnostic testing (25%), and communication (14%).
• Post-implementation, non-statistically significant improvements were observed in reporting safety concerns and learning from errors.

Conclusions:

• The Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) is a viable strategy for enhancing patient safety in ambulatory care.
• CUSP effectively identifies and facilitates the addressing of safety concerns in primary care settings.
• Further research is warranted to confirm the statistically significant impact of CUSP on safety climate in ambulatory care.