Search

The purpose of this study was to describe Operation Iraqi/Enduring Freedom and Operation Desert Storm/Shield deployment experiences from the perspectives of 39 Army Medical Department personnel using a qualitative method in 2004. Thematic content analysis revealed themes from data collected during twelve focus groups. The themes with the most discussion that transcended across wars, branches, echelons of care, and grade were leadership and readiness concerns, followed closely by safety Issues. The majority of discussion was about deficiency needs during deployment and the data suggests that problems experienced during deployment are timeless and are not unit-specific; issues were strikingly similar across the two wars, as well as across the varying AMEDD roles and types of medical units. Therefore, the findings of this study may be generically applicable to deployed AMEDD personnel with the potential to alter current policy regarding leadership, readiness, and safety for future AMEDD deployments., Pub. in Military Medicine, v174 n6, p631-636, 2009.

A key tenet of patient safety programs is the elimination of the "culture of blame." The On-line Patient Safety Climate Survey was developed to evaluate the corporate safety climate of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD). The survey tool was designed to measure willingness to report errors, problem-solving processes, and perceptions of the leadership's concern for patient safety. The survey included two demographic questions, 19 items using a 4-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree), and one text item that asked respondents to identify the number one safety issue at their facility. After the instrument was tested to evaluate its psychometric properties, it was administered at 37 military hospitals and clinics in an effort to establish a systemwide baseline. In 2001, staff at 37 medical treatment facilities (MTFs) participated in the survey (N = 10,769). The overall systemwide score (all respondents) was positive (2.96), and analyses of specific items demonstrated that error reporting was an area of concern. The OnLine Patient Safety Survey demonstrated adequate psychometric properties and the ability to provide an accurate assessment of the overall safety climate across the various clinical treatment facilities of an organized health care system. The results provided information useful for establishing a corporate baseline and identifying specific quality improvement needs., Published in Advances in Patient Safety: From Research to Implementation, v1-4 p415-428, AHRQ Publication Nos. 050021 (1-4), Feb 2005. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/advances/.