PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA—ECRI, the nation’s largest patient safety organization, announces its unity with the United States’ top safety experts in calling for a total systems approach to safety, a theme that was the central focus at the May 2022 Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Patient Safety Congress.

During its annual convening of national safety leaders, IHI leadership announced its Declaration to Advance Patient Safety, an initiative focused on addressing safety from a total systems approach, as presented in the 2020 National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety.

“As a member of the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety that created the National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety, ECRI fully supports this renewed call to action as outlined in the recent Declaration,” states Chief Medical Officer Dheerendra Kommala, MD. “ECRI, the most trusted voice in healthcare, is in a unique position to deliver a comprehensive, robust solution that reduces preventable harm.”

ECRI’s total system approach to advancing safety includes the design and implementation of a proactive, coordinated strategy to establish healthcare safety processes that impact patients, families, visitors, and healthcare workers across the continuum of care.

ECRI’s healthcare safety experts work collaboratively with healthcare providers to achieve a total systems approach by focusing on strategies to assess, analyze, and implement evidence-based solutions in support of the four foundational domains of the National Action Plan:

• Culture, leadership and governance
• Patient and family engagement
• Workforce safety
• Learning system

“This approach, coupled with a focus on the redesign of clinical operating systems, requires coordination of leadership, frontline staff, and safety, quality, and risk management professionals,” stresses Kommala.

ECRI’s 2022 Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns outlined many complex safety issues which can be addressed by a total systems approach to safety. “Tackling a complex issue like staffing shortages, our number one concern, can have a profound impact on both the safety of patients and the healthcare workforce. Leaders and governing bodies need to recognize that the solution is not an easy fix,” says Shannon Davila, RN, associate director of ECRI Safety Solutions. “It requires multi-stakeholder engagement and a learning system framework to actively understand how harm events occur so that we can begin to implement strong and sustainable solutions.”

First established in 2008 as separate PSOs, the joint ECRI and the ISMP PSO now works collaboratively with more than 1,400 healthcare organizations across a breadth of care settings—from hospitals, health systems, and physician practices to pharmacies, aging services providers, and ambulatory surgery centers—to assess where gaps may exist within their current organizational structures. The PSO team analyzes its robust database of more than five million event reports related to patient safety, infection, and medical devices. ECRI and ISMP’s multidisciplinary team of clinicians, engineers, and medication safety and human factors experts analyzes and compares the data, customizes safety plans, and follows through with clients to ensure programs are implemented and monitored.

For more information about how ECRI can support healthcare organizations across the continuum of care setting to achieve a total system approach to safety, visit our website, contact clientservices@ecri.org, or call 610-825-6000.

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• @ECRI_Org supports @TheIHI’s renewed call to action to advance patient safety through a total system approach #PSO

About ECRI

ECRI is an independent, nonprofit organization improving the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of care across all healthcare settings. With a focus on technology evaluation and safety, ECRI is respected and trusted by healthcare leaders and agencies worldwide.

For more than fifty years, ECRI has built its reputation on integrity and disciplined rigor, with an unwavering commitment to independence and strict conflict-of-interest rules. ECRI is the only organization worldwide to conduct independent medical device evaluations, with labs located in North America and Asia Pacific. ECRI is designated an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices PSO is a federally certified Patient Safety Organization as designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) formally became an ECRI Affiliate in 2020.

Visit www.ecri.org and follow @ECRI_Org

For more information, contact:
Laurie Menyo, Director of Strategic Communications
610.825.6000 ext. 5310
lmenyo@ecri.org