SummaCare, Inc.

Patient Safety, 2005

August 2005

SummaCare, Inc., an Ohio-based health plan, has implemented a program to promote safer medication practices. One of several interventions in the program, AHRQ's 20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors Fact Sheet was reprinted in the winter 2004 edition of SummaCare's commercial and Medicaid member newsletters. Earlier SummaCare editions contained reprints of AHRQ's Five Steps to Safer Health Care and 12 Tips to Prevent Medical Errors.

Several interventions, including the AHRQ publications, were implemented simultaneously to promote safe medication practices, and the overall effort to improve patient health is promising, according to Wayne Cermak, Director of Quality Management at SummaCare. "I feel that by improving patient and physician awareness of medication errors, they can be reduced," he says.

SummaCare is based in Akron, Ohio. It serves members in a 13-county area in northeastern Ohio through a network of over 5,000 providers and 28 hospitals.

Impact Case Study Identifier: OCKT 05-01
AHRQ Product(s): Publications
Topic(s): Patient Safety
Scope: Ohio

20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors. Patient Fact Sheet. AHRQ Publication No. 00-PO38, February 2000. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.

Making Health Care Safer: A Critical Analysis of Patient Safety Practices: Summary. July 2001. AHRQ Publication No. 01-E057. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.