Patient Safety in the Traditional and Evolving Nontraditional Office Setting

Patient safety remains a concern for practice in traditional office settings as well as emerging forms of telehealth. Effective leadership is required to establish a culture of safety in office practice, with all staff undergoing appropriate credentialing and privileging. Key areas of focus for office safety are documentation and follow-up of patient encounters, medication safety, and surgical safety. Medication safety standards include prescribed medications, office administered injections and samples given to patients. Similar rules of patient safety apply to both hospital-based and office-based surgical procedures. Telehealth will present new challenges for maintaining patient safety, for which more study is needed.