Dr. Pronovost, the senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine, wrote that hospitals should partner up and perform peer-to-peer assessments to pass on best practices and root out dangerous ones in a safe space.
“In peer-to-peer, a team of reviewers — executives, managers, front-line clinicians, researchers and others — visit another hospital for a structured, confidential and nonpunative review of its safety and quality efforts,” he wrote. “While it would be foolhardy to show your flaws to regulators, in peer-to-peer assessments, it is encouraged. The goal is to create an environment of learning, not judging.”
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He wrote that Johns Hopkins Hospital and Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital have assessed one another using a jointly developed survey, and it led to improvements at the bedside and at the administrative levels.
“Peer-to-peer review helps hospitals to discuss their problems in a safe environment, when it isn’t a crisis,” Dr. Pronovost wrote. “It’s been said that change progresses at the speed of trust; trust among peer organizations can accelerate improvement that saves patients’ lives.”
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