New tool in primary care may effectively identify errors, increase patient safety

The Errors of Care Omission Survey may be effective at identifying critical omissions in the primary care setting, leading to increased prevention of patient harm, according to a study published in the Journal of Patient Safety.

“Most patient safety studies focus on errors of commissions. However, errors of omission occur more frequently yet they are not well-studied or understood,” Lusine Poghosyan, PhD, MPH, RN, associate professor at Columbia University School of Nursing, told Healio Primary Care Today. “We have developed a new tool to measure errors of omission.”

The tool, which originally consisted of 31 items grouped into the subscales of Self-Management Support, Follow-up, Emotional Health Support and Care Integration, allows primary care providers to report on the frequency of missing each item on a five-point scale (“very frequently” to “never”), according to the researchers.