The Premier Safety Institute hosts a free, downloadable Ambulatory Patient Safety Toolkit.
This tool was developed in 2003 by Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center for the Safety Collaborative for the OutPatient Environment (SCOPE), a demonstration project to support improvements in patient safety in the ambulatory health care setting. Although the toolkit is several years old, it provides organizations with numerous resources for review and possible adaption for use.
Within the toolkit are 11 assessment tools and project summaries developed to help medical providers evaluate their offices' practices in identified structural and process measures that relate to patient safety. The 40-page toolkit provides brief narratives describing how participants in a mini-collaborative of seven regional sites used the tools to improve patient safety.
The toolkit describes the following tools:
- Accurate and complete medication list
- Allergy documentation toolkit
- Prescription writing toolkit
- Potassium chloride vials for infusions toolkit
- Error reporting toolkit
- Warning labels toolkit for look alike, sound alike drugs
- Verbal orders toolkit
- Secure sample drugs
- Protocols for use of hazardous drugs (coumadin and insulin)
- Patient partnering for medication safety
- Notification of patient results toolkit
Each tool is organized as follows:
- Description of best practice
- Summary of work accomplished
- Work plan
- Measures of completion
- Status
- Plan for reassessment
- Guidelines for implementation
Appendixes A and B of the toolkit present two project proposals that were rejected by the demonstration project but that may nonetheless be of interest to some ambulatory care practices. These projects focus on the following topics:
- Electronic prescription writing
- Patient identification/wrong-site surgery procedure prevention
Download the Ambulatory Patient Safety Toolkit (pdf) for use in your facility.
Note: View our database providing 150 reports that link to free, downloadable and adaptable tools for use in surgery centers, hospitals and other organizations by clicking here.
Related Articles on Patient Safety Toolkits:
Free Clostridium Difficile Prevention Toolkit From Clorox Professional Products Co.
Medication Safety Reconciliation Toolkit
Patient Handover Toolkit From the Royal College of Physicians