Improving Patient Safety in a High-Volume Intravitreal Injection Clinic

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Patient Safety
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• High-volume intravitreal injections present unique patient safety challenges.
• Complex treatment plans and time pressures contribute to potential safety events.

Purpose of the Study:

• Identify root causes of patient safety events in intravitreal injection clinics.
• Assess the effectiveness of interventions in reducing these events.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement study analyzed intravitreal injection cases from 2016-2019.
• Root cause analysis identified factors like complex plans and human error.
• Interventions included revised documentation, dedicated review time, and dual verification processes.

Main Results:

• The rate of patient safety events decreased from 0.1% before interventions to 0.01% after.
• This represents a significant reduction from 9.3 events per year to 1 event per year (P=0.01).
• Most events were near misses, with no reported patient harm.

Conclusions:

• Proactive identification of safety issues and root causes is crucial.
• Implementing targeted quality improvements can achieve high patient safety levels in complex practices.
• Reducing near misses is key to preventing potential patient harm.