Patient Safety
Building a Culture of Safety
Magellan has long been a champion of patient safety. Our Patient Safety program includes more than 40 ways in which we partner with members, providers and each other to enhance safety. Some of these include:
- Being available by phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week-so that members in crisis can always get the help they need.
- Training practitioners on specific behaviors that enhance safety- such as using evidence-based interventions, and formulating safety-oriented treatment plans.
- Teaching members ways to take charge of their safety-for example checking to make sure they receive the correct types and dosages of prescriptions at the pharmacy.
- Monitoring lifetime exposure to radiation and avoiding unnecessary diagnostic imaging procedures.
- Training our staff about effective ways to help employer customers recognize common signs of violence escalation and take concrete actions to keep them and their employees safe.
- Reviewing clinical files of high-volume practitioners to see how well they are addressing safety issues.
- Requiring care managers to ask practitioners specifically about safety and risk when discussing cases.
- Tracking, recording, and investigating adverse events that occur during treatment and, when necessary, working with practitioners in response to these events.
- Conducting site visits to determine if providers' physical environments pose any dangers.
We are proud of our achievements to date, but we continually seek new opportunities to collaborate with health care professionals and governmental, accreditation, consumer, and trade organizations to ensure that patients receive services in the safest, most effective manner possible.
This page last updated 5/20/2009 4:34:39 PM