: Patient-centered care has been identified by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) as one of the six aims for improving the quality of health care. Patient-centered care can improve outcomes on selected clinical indicators as well as satisfaction for both patients and providers. Recognizing the relationship of partnership and communication to improving medication safety, this project proposes to develop strategies and tools that can be used to engage patients and providers in medication management in the clinic and community setting. The goal of the proposed research demonstration is to implement a patient partnership model as an intervention to improve safety in the outpatient setting. The proposed partnership will join Aurora Health Care (AHC), patients, health care providers, and the community in a collaborative effort to develop and implement strategies to improve medication list accuracy in five non-metro clinics in Walworth County, Wisconsin. The ? target population is patients 55 years and older who are among those most vulnerable to medication safety issues due to chronic medical conditions, polypharmacy, and multiple providers. ? ? Project objectives include: 1) Implementation of a Patient Safety Partnership Council, utilizing focus groups, interviews, and other formative research strategies; 2) Development by the Council of strategies to improve medication list accuracy in the clinic setting utilizing formative research strategies; 3) Implementation of medication list accuracy interventions in the clinics; 4) Assessment of outcomes related to the medication list accuracy interventions; 5) Assessment of impact of interventions on patient, provider, and Council member satisfaction and engagement; 6) Dissemination of information on strategies and tools to develop an outpatient patient-provider council, as well as effective strategies for improving medication list accuracy in the clinic setting. In order to achieve these goals, AHC will partner with Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS), a national consumer-led organization with expertise in developing safety advisory boards, and with Midwest Airlines (Midwest), which will provide airline industry expertise on consumer service and developing an organizational culture of safety. ? ?
