An Automated Quality Improvement System Reduced Patient Safety Events in an Academic Tertiary Neurology Center
Benjamin Burke1, Princess Ikemenogo2, Elizabeth Perelstein1
1Brown University, 2University of Washington
Objective:
To assess whether the implementation of an automated quality improvement tool (The Daily Q) for neurology resident physicians at an academic center was associated with a decrease in patient safety events.
Background:
In clinical operations, the traditional response to a patient safety event is a one-time reminder (e.g. an email), which may not create lasting improvement. Our team designed and implemented an automated quality improvement (QI) tool for neurology resident physicians, with an aim to reinforce knowledge of clinical operations and thereby provide longer-lasting process improvement.
Design/Methods:

A tool (The Daily Q) was developed to reinforce correct operations among neurology resident physicians at an academic hospital. We built a database of simple, multiple-choice questions designed to reinforce operations implicated in patient safety events, identified from the center’s event reporting system. The tool randomly selected a daily question from the database and displayed it on a website for resident access.

Data was abstracted from patient safety event reports. We compared the year prior to tool rollout (May 2022 - 2023) to the year following (May 2023 - 2024). We compared the total number of events, the number of repeat events, and whether inclusion in the automated tool affected the frequency of repeat events.


Results:

Patient safety events related to topics covered in the automated tool significantly decreased following rollout (χ², p = 0.046). Patient safety events were also significantly less likely to repeat after topic inclusion in the tool (χ², p = 0.004). The decrease was seen despite the overall number of patient safety events increasing between the two study years (36 vs. 50, 39% increase). Patient safety events related to topics not covered in the automated tool did not see such reductions.


Conclusions:
An automated QI system was associated with a significant reduction in the incidence and repetition of patient safety events.
10.1212/WNL.0000000000217441
Disclaimer: Abstracts were not reviewed by Neurology® and do not reflect the views of Neurology® editors or staff.