As part of Patient Safety Awareness Week, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality launched a tool that takes safety lessons learned in hospital settings and applies them to medical offices.

TeamSTEPPS for Office-Based Care is based on TeamSTEPPS principles and provides strategies and techniques to improve care standards.

“We recognize that adverse events don’t occur in isolation, but rather are the product of their environment,” said AHRQ Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Director Dr. Jeffrey Brady. “We support and fund health services research that advances our understanding and solves a wide range of patient safety challenges that patients and providers encounter across the care continuum.”

Brady said the goal of the tool is to “to help (clinicians) improve communication, teamwork and mutual support” surrounding patient safety.

The audience for TeamSTEPPS for Office-Based Care is wide. It is appropriate for:

• Primary care offices
• Specialty offices (cardiology, obstetrics, etc.)
• Pediatrics
• Patient-centered medical homes
• Walk-in clinics
• Large medical office buildings
• Small or rural offices
• Clinics in retail settings