Healthcare Delivery Science and Medication Safety

Catalog description

This course provides an advanced study of how care is actually delivered within healthcare systems and the community, with a specific interest in identifying and correcting for common or serious problems. A focus on medication-related safety and quality metrics will help students to develop the analytical skills needed to identify specific factors that lead to suboptimal events and outcomes. Students will learn about technologies that health professionals use to detect medication errors, as well as those tools available to patients to use in their own self-care. Course topics include an overview of quality and safety issues in healthcare, common types of medication use problems, human factors, engagement and leadership of quality teams, quality improvement tools and techniques such as checklists, root cause analysis and failure mode and effects analysis, LEAN, Joint Commission, Institute for Safe Medication Practices and other consensus guidelines, and medication error reduction programs. Students will learn about current and evolving health information technology methods and tools that work to improve the safety of medication use processes.