Medical Errors: Promoting a Culture of Patient Safety — Psychologist Course

Important message regarding license expiration dates:
As part of the response efforts to the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID- 19), State Surgeon General, Scott Rivkees has extended the licensure renewal expiration date until March 31, 2021 for any health care practitioner with licensure renewal deadlines between December 31, 2020 and March 01, 2021. The license expiration date for Medical Doctor is extended to March 31, 2021.

This course satisfies continuing education relicensure requirements on prevention of medical errors for Florida psychologists. The purpose of this course is to promote patient safety and improve patient outcomes by providing an overview of the safety concerns facing health care systems today, including statistics and background on the magnitude of the problem and error reduction, prevention and root cause analysis. This course includes discussion within the mental health practice that carry the potential for “medical” errors including improper diagnosis; failure to comply with abuse reporting laws; inadequate assessment of potential for violence; failure to detect medical conditions presenting as a psychological/psychiatric disorder.

Current Florida Board of Psychology relicensure requirements available here.

Target Audience

Psychologists (Instructional Level: Intermediate) licensed in the State of Florida.

Baptist Health South  Florida is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Baptist Health South Florida maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion, participants should be able to: 

  • Describe the incidence of medical errors and the effect on patient safety.
  • Explain the role of the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) task forces on Improving the Quality of Healthcare in America. 
  • Recognize error-prone situations, processes and factors, and create a culture of safety in order to reduce errors. 
  • Identify processes to approach error reduction and prevention in order to improve patient outcomes. 
  • Define the process and benefit of root cause analysis.
  • Delineate Baptist Health policies and procedures for reporting medical errors.
  • Identify safety needs of special populations.
  • Discuss areas within the mental health practice that carry the potential for “medical” errors including improper diagnosis; failure to comply with abuse reporting laws; inadequate assessment of potential for violence; failure to detect medical conditions presenting as a psychological/psychiatric disorder.
Additional information
Bibliography: 
  • DeAngelis, T. (2016, September) Preventing medical errors: Psychologists are revamping health-care systems to keep patients safe from life-threatening mistakes. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org.
  • Frese, M., & Keith, N. (2015). Action errors, error management, and learning in organizations. Annual review of psychology, 66, 661-687.
  • James, J. T. (2013). A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care. Journal of patient safety, 9(3), 122-128.
Course Summary
Available credit: 
  • 2.00 Psychology CE
  • 2.00 General certificate of attendance
  • 2.00 Florida Board of Psychology
Course opens: 
02/01/2020
Course expires: 
01/31/2021

Paul A. Gluck, M.D.
Obstetrician/Gynecologist
Baptist and South Miami Hospitals
Chair of the Board, National Patient Safety Foundation
Past Chair, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Committee
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Miami, Florida

Barry M. Crown, Ph.D., J.D.
Psychologist
Baptist, Doctors, Homestead and South Miami Hospitals

Yvonne Zawodny, R.N., LHRM, CPHRM
Corporate Assistant Vice President, Risk Management

Paul A. Gluck, M.D., Barry M. Crown, Ph.D., FACPN and Yvonne D'Angelo Zawodny, R.N., have indicated that neither they nor their spouses/partners have relevant financial relationships with commercial interest companies, and they will not include off-label or unapproved product usage in their presentations or discussions. 

Non-faculty contributors and others involved in the planning, development and editing/review of the content have no relevant financial relationships to disclose. 

Disclosure Policy and Disclaimer 

Available Credit

  • 2.00 Psychology CE
  • 2.00 General certificate of attendance
  • 2.00 Florida Board of Psychology
Please login or register for a Baptist Health CME account to take this course.

Baptist Health South Florida CME Department automatically reports credits to the Florida Department of Health through CE Broker. Please be sure your profile is filled out correctly with License and Profession.
To self-report to other States or organizations, Certificates of Completion can be accessed on your CME Portal Account under My Activities. 

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