Meeting to Discuss Medical Errors and Patient Safety Research Agenda

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and its partners on the Quality Interagency Coordination (QuIC) Task Force sponsored a meeting for representatives of health care provider organizations on in Chicago. The purpose of the meeting was to seek input on the key research questions that need to be answered to improve patient safety throughout the nation’s health care system. Select to access the Agenda.

The meeting was a follow-up to the national summit on medical errors and patient safety research held in Washington, DC. The draft research agenda developed as a result of the summit is intended to help guide the decisions of public- and private-sector organizations funding research in this area.

Based on the presentations made, as well as the full written statements submitted by the witnesses and others, research objectives in the draft agenda were grouped according to those that are short-, medium-, or long-term projects. Overall, the agenda called for research in the short term focused on learning more about how to implement what is already known about error reduction; research in the medium term that will help to sharpen current understanding of the scope of the problem, the types and causes of errors, and how to design effective reporting systems; and research in the long term to address how the culture and organization of health care systems can be changed to facilitate safety.

Additional meetings with State and local policymakers and with consumer groups are being considered to gather additional feedback on the draft research agenda.