Author: Dr. Dennis E. Schellhase
Behind the times
As I sat down to write and began to review the increasing literature related to reducing harm due to adverse drug events (ADEs), I realized that we start several years behind. In the past decade, a growing number of programs have implemented successful safety initiatives to reduce pediatric ADEs based primarily upon W. Edward Deming’s method of improvement model1-4. We have just begun to step away from the hierarchical top down approach of innumerable policies and procedures and to slowly and gingerly move toward a frontline approach to improve quality and safety utilizing the method of improvement model. [...]