Practice and Advocacy
AAO-HNS StoreQuality Improvement Resources
Basic Quality Improvement Tools
If you are looking for quality improvement tools to implement in your practice, the following are useful places to start.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): Offers ready-to-use tools to measure and improve the quality of the healthcare you provide.
AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network: read about current patient safety news.
American Medical Association: For safety, advocacy, measurement and education information and tools.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI): Provides resources, improvement stories, and downloadable tools to use in your practice.
National Academies Press: This site offers the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports on patient safety both for sale and to read free on-line.
National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS): Part of the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system. NCPS provides miscellaneous patient safety resources.
ECRI Medical Device Safety Alerts: A nonprofit health services research agency that provides free access to reports on medical devices that have failed to operate properly or are misused in ways that have caused injuries and deaths.
Healthcare Improvement Skills Center (HISC): Supports healthcare professionals attempting to make systematic improvements in the quality of the healthcare they provide to their patients.
Improving Communication With Your Patients
Cultural Diversity in Healthcare: Provides information about books, workshops, case studies and links to other websites on cultural diversity in the healthcare setting.
DiversityRx: Provides information about best practices, training courses, legal issues, etc. as it relates to practicing with a diverse patient population.
Read national reports describing trends as well as healthcare quality assessment.
Rand Corporation (non profit institution specializing in research and analysis) report on health disparities “The First National Report Card on Quality of Health Care in America” at http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9053-2/index1.html
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) report, “National Healthcare Disparities Report, 2006” at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr06/report/
If you are considering having your office-based surgical suite accredited, start by visiting the 3 major accrediting agencies to find out how:
Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Healthcare (AAAHC)
American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities, Inc. (AAAASF)
March Bulletin Article on Accreditation
If you have suggestions or are looking for information that you have not been able to find, please contact us to let us know what information would be helpful to you.
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Calendar more...
Emory Temporal Bone Surgical Dissection Courses (09/08/08)American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Annual Meeting (09/15/08)
Extra-Esophageal Reflux Disease: The Future - Diagnosis and Treatment (09/18/08)
American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Annual Meeting and OTO EXPO (09/21/08)
XCVI Temporal Bone Course Dissection (10/01/08)
Practice Management Workshops
Workshops held in cities nationwide will help otolaryngologists, their staff, and other healthcare professionals code correctly, learn risk reduction strategies, and organize business systems.
