Patient and provider safety is our top priority, and we are dedicated to quality improvement work through both research and education.
WORKPLACE & PROVIDER SAFETY
With funding from the Safety and Health Investments Projects grant program from the Washington State Labor and Industries Department, Dr. Marie Vrablik is studying workplace violence directed against health care providers. This research aims to identify predictors of violence and the ways in which health professionals respond. The overarching goal is to improve training for healthcare workers to safely identify and react to workplace violence.
QUALITY OF CARE
EM faculty are dedicated to improving quality of care for our patients. Ongoing patient safety and quality projects with Dr. Marie Vrablik include: the development of a mobile platform for wound care follow up, the use of statewide electronic platforms on ED patients and their primary care follow up rates, and studying the impact of ketamine on psychiatric outcomes.
EMERGENCY CARE DELIVERY
Emergency medicine faculty engage research aimed at improving the effectiveness and value of emergency care delivery. Projects funded by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality examined clinical outcomes and resource use related to unscheduled return visits to the ED, the effectiveness of expedited follow-up in transitional care clinics to reduce preventable ED visits, and sought to understand how patient discharge care experiences impact acute care outcomes after an ED visit.
Faculty, like Drs. Amber Sabbatini and Kennedy Hall, have expertise in using large, nationally representative administrative and claims datasets to conduct policy-relevant research on emergency care delivery such as ED workforce analyses and diagnostic imaging utilization, and understanding trends in the use of observation care, its impact on current readmission measures, and the cost burden for patients.