HHS
announces $50 million investment to improve patient
safety
HHS secretary Tommy G. Thompson has announced the
release of $50 million to fund 94 new research grants,
contracts and other projects to reduce medical errors
and improve patient safety.
The initiative represents the federal government's
largest single investment to address the estimated
44,000 to 98,000 patient deaths related to medical
errors each year. The 94 projects now being funded
will be carried out at state agencies, major universities,
hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, physicians'
offices, professional societies and other organizations
across the country.
"Nothing could be more important than making
sure patients receive quality care that doesn't
cause unintended harm, and our investment in this
kind of research will pay off in terms of improved
patient safety for all Americans," Thompson
said. "These grants will help identify the
causes of medical errors and develop effective solutions
to strengthen quality of care across the country."
Funded by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality, these projects will address key unanswered
questions about how errors occur and provide science-based
information on what patients, clinicians, hospital
leaders, policymakers and others can do to make
the health care system safer. The results of this
research will identify improvement strategies that
work in hospitals, doctors' offices, nursing homes
and other health care settings across the nation.
"[This] announcement marks the first coordinated
effort to begin compiling the best evidence on how
to reduce medical errors and share that evidence
with the clinicians and patients who can use it
to improve health care," AHRQ director Dr.
John M. Eisenberg said. "This patient safety
portfolio is a down payment on research that can
move us forward in our understanding of the problem
of medical errors and what to do about it."
This $50 million research initiative is the first
phase of a multi-year effort. Many institutions
will receive additional funds to continue their
work in future years. These projects reflect the
input of consumers, health care providers and policymakers
from a national research summit last year led by
AHRQ and its partners on the Quality Interagency
Coordination Task Force.
This research initiative is part of HHS' broader
efforts to improve the quality of care in America
and better ensure safety across health care settings.
Since 1998, HHS has served with other federal agencies
on the QuIC Task Force to coordinate efforts toward
improving the quality of care for patients across
America. In addition, Secretary Thompson created
the HHS Patient Safety Task Force in April 2001
to coordinate and strengthen the department's existing
systems for collecting data on patient safety in
concert with the states and the private sector.
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