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Family Medicine Residency Resource Guide: Patient Safety & Quality Improvement Resources

INTRODUCTION

Links that provide an introduction to topics in Health Care Quality and Safety:

Finding Patient Safety/Quality Improvement Literature

PubMed queries for QI publications:

Copy and paste the words in bold into PubMed, then add your specific topic to find QI articles. Each search below yields different results, for best results try each of them with your topic. 

  • Simple text word search: quality AND improv* AND intervention*
  • Simple text words, synonyms A:  ((quality) AND ((improv* OR enhance*))) AND ((intervention* OR initiative* OR strategy* OR program*))
  • Simple text words, synonyms B: ((((quality OR system OR process))) AND ((improv* OR enhance*))) AND ((intervention* OR initiative* OR strategy* OR program*))
  • Subject Headings: (((("Quality of Health Care"[Mesh]) OR "Quality Assurance, Health Care"[Mesh]) OR "Quality Indicators, Health Care"[Mesh]) OR "Health Plan Implementation"[Mesh]) OR "Quality Improvement"[Mesh]


Quality Improvement was introduced as a medical subject heading (MeSH) in 2011. This link goes to all articles indexed with the Quality Improvement subject heading since 2011. Add your topic to the search to find specific articles.

Health Survey/Assessment Databases

Measurement tools are instruments used by researchers and practitioners to aid in the assessment or evaluation of subjects, clients or patients. Types of measurement tools include scales, indexes, surveys, interviews, and informal observations.  IMPORTANT NOTE: This is an instructional guide. It may not help you find your specific test nor is it a direct link to the full-text of tests.

Quality Improvement Information

Specialized PubMed search filter to help locate information on healthcare quality and costs. From National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care (NICHSR)

  • HSRProj - Health Services Research Projects in Progress (no longer supported as of 9/12/21)

Go to the National Information Center on Health Services Research & Health Care Technology website for more information.

Patient Safety Information

  • Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce (PHPartners) - no longer supported but some links may be available via archived pages below.

see archived page here (last captured on 9/12/21).  Health People 2020 Structured Evidence Queries can be found here. Search by Topic Area including Healthcare-Associated Infections, Medical Product Safety, Food Safety, Occupational Safety and Health and more. Note: some links on archived site may not work.

The Global Unique Device Identification Database (GUDID) contains key device identification information submitted to the FDA about medical devices that have Unique Device Identifiers (UDI).

  • SafetyLit®: Injury Research and Prevention Literature Update

SafetyLit includes summaries of doctoral theses, "scholarly" reports and journal articles about injury occurrence and risk factors.