Academy, Along With ABO And OMIC, Establish New Performance Improvement Taskforce
The taskforce will develop education-related activities that help physicians identify areas for improvement, provide practitioners with tools for measuring improvement, and evaluate and measure physician improvement in practice.
"All ophthalmologists strive to give their patients high-quality care," said H. Dunbar Hoskins, executive vice president of the Academy. "This taskforce will help physicians take good practices and make them even better."
One of the goals of the taskforce is to identify areas of physician practice that can be improved through the consistent use of easy-to-implement, evidenced-based, and common-sense protocols. Wrong eye and wrong IOL implant surgery were chosen as the taskforce's first missions.
"Mistakes are extremely uncommon when it comes to wrong site or wrong IOL implant, but they are serious" said Joseph Caprioli, MD FACS, chairman of the taskforce and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles. "Simple steps that begin in the office and end in the operating room can help ophthalmologists eliminate rare occurrences of serious mistakes."
Dr. Caprioli referred to a retrospective study in the Archives of Ophthalmology that documents surgical confusion. Of the 106 cases covering 23 years studied, wrong IOL implant and wrong eye surgery were the most common mistakes by physicians and their teams. These were followed by wrong eye blocks, wrong procedure or wrong patient, and wrong corneal transplants. Had the Universal Protocol been used, 85 percent of the surgical confusions could have been avoided, the study concluded.
In 2008, the taskforce will develop an online CME activity that physicians can use to minimize wrong site surgery and wrong IOL implant. The resulting tool will allow physicians to:
- Compare their own practices to those based on protocols that are proven to reduce error and follow evidenced-based performance measures; and
- Easily adopt the system in their own office by providing them with simple to use checklists
In addition, the taskforce will collect anonymous data on the current and post-education practice activities to evaluate the changes in practice and outcomes as a result of the practice improvement activity.
This activity is the first step of the taskforce, which is comprised of seven ophthalmologists representing the Academy, ABO and OMIC.
About the American Academy of Ophthalmology
AAO is the world's largest association of eye physicians and surgeons-Eye M.D.s-with more than 27,000 members worldwide. Eye health care is provided by the three "O's" - opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists. It is the ophthalmologist, or Eye M.D., who can treat it all: eye diseases and injuries, and perform eye surgery.
American Academy of Ophthalmology
Academiei, împreunã cu ?bo ªi OMIC, stabilirea de noi Îmbunãtãþirea performanþelor Taskforce - Academy, Along With ABO And OMIC, Establish New Performance Improvement Taskforce - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate