Patient Safety Indicators Overview
The patient safety indicator (PSI) set of indicators was developed
by the AHRQ to measure health care quality
by using readily available hospital inpatient administrative data. This set
provides a tool to
help hospital leaders identify potential adverse events occurring during hospitalization.
According to the AHRQ website, the software is available without charge to hospitals
and other users, and USA hospitals have the advantage of further analysis by SAS/SPSS
programs because of the nationwide unification of administration data processing.
We have downloaded their documentation and are attempting to use ICD-9-codes to
automate the data collection of these indicators. Currently, we are struggling with
difficulties created by the differences in DRG classification as described in
the American documentation compared with DRG implementation in the Taiwan healthcare
scene. We at least hope to implement a monitoring system for these indicators, even
if our access to the peer group available in the US is limited.
Keep watching this space for updates on our progress!