Patient safety & Quality Healthcare Magazine Publishing a Series of Articles on Rhode Island Patient Safety Improvements

How Rhode Island Is Leading a Revolution in Patient Safety

By Joanne Dooley, RN; Jean Marie Rocha, MPH, RN; Patricia Daughenbaugh, MSN; and Kathy Martin, MBA

This is the first in a series of articles about the statewide implementation of a standardized web-based event-reporting platform to facilitate the reduction of medical errors.


Rhode Island has played a leadership role in numerous revolutions throughou tour  history. The state was the first of the original thirteen colonies to declare independence from Great Britain, igniting the American Revolution. The construction of the first successful textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, signaled the start of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

Today, Rhode Island continues that trailblazing tradition by leading efforts in another critical area: patient safety. Thanks to a statewide initiative to standardize the reporting and analysis of both adverse and near-miss medical events, Rhode Island will unite its private acute care hospitals—technologically and culturally—in a common effort to reduce medical errors.

to read the full article please visit www.psqh.com