ABQAURP Announces Certificate Course in Medical Error ...( TAMPA Fla. Sept. 6 /- ABQAURP is ...),Health

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- ABQAURP is pleased to announce the 2007-08 "Certificate Course in Patient Safety and Prevention of Medical Errors." The core content includes patient safety initiatives, risk management, medical error prevention, safety needs of special populations, responsibility for error reporting and public education.

National attention is being focused on "never events" -- serious and costly errors in the provision of health care services that should never happen. Events that cause serious injury or death to patients, such as surgery on the wrong body part or mismatched blood transfusions, can result in inflated costs to treat the consequences of the error. In an effort to eliminate these events, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has said it will no longer pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain "conditions that could reasonably have been prevented."

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that as many as 98,000 deaths a year were attributable to medical errors. While we do not know how many of these were derived from "never events," we do know that inflated costs and unnecessary deaths are the result.

"One of the most effective ways to address issues of patient safety is to provide current education for all health care professionals, provided under the aegis of the highest standardized certification process available," states Arthur I. Broder, MD, Chairman of the Board, ABQAURP. "The Course in Patient Safety and Prevention of Medical Errors is an opportunity for health care professionals to enhance their knowledge, awareness, and skills. Hospitals, physicians, and others can be more effective in the care they provide, helping to save lives and control unnecessary costs."

In view of the payment reform goals outlined by CMS, Medicare does not intend to continue paying for "never events." Eliminating additional payments allows more resource allocation toward preventing events
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