Minnesota Adverse Health Events Measurement Guide

Published Thursday, April 15, 2010

Stratis Health, together with the Minnesota Department of Health, is pleased to provide you with the Minnesota Adverse Health Events Measurement Guide.

Stratis Health has been reviewing reported adverse events, root cause analysis, and corrective action plans under contract with the Minnesota Department of Health since 2003. Through review of the reported events and communication with reporting organizations, Stratis Health has noted that organizations have challenges when creating strong measures, which allow them to know if their efforts are having the intended effect. Limited resources and tools are available to assist organizations through the process of developing, implementing, and evaluating their measurement strategy.

The guide is designed to assist those new to the Minnesota Adverse Health Care Event Reporting Law and its reporting requirements. It also is intended to serve as a resource for the more experienced safety teams. The 28-page guide:

• Outlines the process of setting up and implementing measurement plans, using examples throughout to demonstrate the concepts.
• Incorporates strong points in measurement to strive for, pitfalls to avoid, limitations of choices and other considerations to guide the teams decision making related to measurement.
• Provides guidance on how to evaluate the success of an action plan based on measurement results and where to start looking next when the outcome is not as expected.

The release of the Minnesota Adverse Health Events Measurement Guide is the first step in providing a useful and practical guide for measurement. Later in 2010, training sessions will be offered to hospitals and surgical centers in the state. The training will complement the guide and provide individuals or teams hands-on practice with development and analysis of measurement strategies, using adverse event examples and case studies as learning tools.

Please share this guide with those in your organization who are working on safety and improvement efforts. We look forward to your feedback on the guide and hope it will assist your safety and improvement efforts. We will provide information about upcoming training opportunities on measurement in the near future.