Federal Employee Health Benefits

Kaiser Permanente Georgia Patient Safety Initiatives

Our pharmacy TechRx computer system has clinical screening functionality to stop fills when there are drug interactions, therapeutic overlap, drug allergy and dispensing duplications. It has custom modification to prevent look-alike drug dispensing errors. Prescription labels contain product identification information (e.g. shape, color, NDC number).

The Southeast Permanente Medical Group (TSPMG) practitioners have access to individual patient prescription drug profiles and patient disease profiles through an electronic medication and problem list history for prescriptions filled at Kaiser Permanente pharmacies.

Kaiser Permanente Georgia routinely includes patient safety information in our TSPMG Newsletter. Our physician and staff recognition program is a component of our Patient Safety Human Factors initiative being developed with all primary and specialty care teams.

Kaiser Permanente Georgia Patient Safety Policy Statement reflects our patient safety goals and is a yardstick to determine whether the Committee for Patient Safety is fulfilling goals by engaging members, practitioners and staff in ambulatory care medical offices and our core hospitals, and through providers such as skilled nursing facilities, home health, and ambulatory surgery centers. CPS responsibilities include:

• Maintain multidisciplinary structure with clear delineation of responsibilities
• Develop and drive annual Patient Safety Agenda and Plan
• Advise, educate, communicate with members, practitioners and staff, and contracted practitioners and providers with clear, focused and coordinated messages
• Facilitate cultural change to an error-resistant environment
• Facilitate human factors education and projects
• Share Patient Safety monitoring responsibilities with Quality Forum
• Liaison with National Kaiser Permanente Patient Safety and help shape their resources for local use
• Respond to evolving regulatory standards from JCAHO, NCQA and MDQR