Qualis Health of Seattle, a non-profit healthcare quality improvement organization, has been awarded a contract with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to conduct a one-year patient safety study focused on emergency room care provided to Medicare beneficiaries.

The project will be administered by the Northwest Center for Patient Safety Education and Research, a program of Qualis Health focused on enhancing patient care and outcomes by promoting best practices, assisting health care systems in translating patient safety research into practice and creating new knowledge necessary for improving patient safety.

"The major purpose of the study is to explore the utility of Medicare administrative data as a source of information about patient safety and quality of care in hospital emergency departments," according to Qualis Health President/CEO Jonathan Sugarman. "Although CMS has been carefully evaluating similar use of its data for inpatient hospital care, nursing home care and other settings, this project marks the initiation of a new focus on emergency care."

The initial population to be studied comprises Medicare beneficiaries who have repeat visits to receive care in an emergency department. The federal government routinely collects information at each emergency department visit. This administrative data will be surveyed to investigate this population and determine which information, if any, could be used to produce targeted patient safety interventions, patient education and public reporting.

One goal of the project is to evaluate these data to identify indicators of emergency department use for healthcare planning. Another will be to determine whether measures can be developed that identifies quality of care and patient safety outcomes. Current national reporting by CMS includes care provided by dialysis facilities, nursing homes and health plans.

Qualis Health will survey published and current work in the field of emergency medicine. A 12-member technical expert panel (TEP) will be selected from national organizations involved in emergency care as well as the federal government and other interested parties.