Purpose

The Center on Patient Safety was established to promote and conduct research and education designed to reduce medical errors and increase healthcare quality. The Center is engaged in funded research utilizing the scientific method and shares new knowledge and expertise with policy makers, the media and other organizations interested in quality improvement and patient safety. In addition, the Center actively provides continuing medical education in the areas of medical error reduction and improved patient safety.

Research

Example of research questions pursued by the Center include:

• How can the use of information technologies (IT) be used optimally to improve healthcare quality & reduce medical errors?
• How can researchers measure hospital IT capabilities in a uniform way so that individual hospitals can be compared?
• Do hospitals who have invested more in IT have better outcomes? (Clinically, financially, other outcomes)
• Do rural hospitals differ from their urban counterparts with respect to IT adoption, & does it matter with respect to outcomes?
• Are hospitals that provide care primarily to children (i.e., pediatric hospitals & related institutions) equally “wired” when compared to general community hospitals? How does IT influence quality of care in pediatric settings?
• What factors influence physicians to adopt technological innovations that improve care?
• How can the State of Florida build a healthcare information infrastructure that will promote improved quality of care for its citizens?
• How has the medical malpractice crisis affected access to care for vulnerable patients?
• How as the medical malpractice crisis affected both primary care physicians and other specialists?