Rheumatology Practices Need Sharp Focus on Patient Care Safety, Quality

She says a growing collection of scientific papers and demonstration projects authored by rheumatologists, including Dr. Newman and Dr. Desai, show that a dedicated quality improvement project focused on safety work, such as improving vaccination rates, can make a large impact on improving the quality of care for rheumatology patients.^5,6

The future of this work is moving it into electronic formats, Dr. Yazdany says. “Many of us are developing feasible ways to introduce electronic safety checks into clinical practice in ways that seamlessly incorporate user interfaces and workflows that are not disruptive or time consuming—this is the right direction to be moving in.”

Carina Stanton is a freelance science journalist based in Denver.

References

1. Newman ED, Lerch V, Billet J, et al. Improving the quality of care of patients with rheumatic disease using patient-centric electronic redesign software. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2015 Apr;67(4):546–553.
2. Desai SP, Lu B, Szent-Gyorgyi LE, et al. Increasing pneumococcal vaccination for immunosuppressed patients: A cluster quality improvement trial. Arthritis Rheum. 2013 Jan;65(1):39–47.
3. Pennant KN, Costa JJ, Fuhlbrigge, et al. Improving influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates in ambulatory specialty practices. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2015 Oct 1;2(4):ofv119.
4. Lawson EF, Trupin L, Yelin EH, et al. Reasons for failure to receive pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations among immunosuppressed patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2015 Jun;44(6):666–671.
5. Harris JG, Maletta KI, Ren B, et al. Improving pneumococcal vaccination in pediatric rheumatology patients. Pediatrics. 2015 Sep;136(3):e681–e686.
6. Baker DW, Brown T, Lee JY, et al. A multifaceted intervention to improve influenza, pneumococcal, and herpes zoster vaccination among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol. 2016 Jun;43(6):1030–1037.