Vanderbilt University Medical Center consistently stands at the top of national rankings when it comes to patient safety. Vanderbilt's medical and surgical specialties are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report. VUMC was ranked No. 1 in Tennessee, No. 1 in the Metro Nashville area and the only health system in the Southeast to be named to the 2023-24 Honor Roll of the top 20 hospitals in the nation.
The Vanderbilt Department of Anesthesiology is particularly proactive when it comes to patient safety and quality improvement, as our specialty covers the complete continuum of patient care, from pre-operative evaluation and intraoperative management, to post-operative care, pain management and beyond.
Our faculty and researchers are actively examining the effects of the introduction of new medical technology on clinical care processes. Specific studies examine human-technology interactions, as well as individual and group performance-shaping factors such as fatigue, workload, divided attention and novel methods of information presentation. In addition to generating practical benefits in terms of improved clinical care processes, current research addresses fundamental questions about the nature of resource accessibility, expertise, interpersonal communication, situation awareness and decision-making under stress.
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Because of increasing scope and impact outside the operating room and across multiple healthcare domains, the Center for Perioperative Research in Quality (CPRQ), founded in 2005, was renamed in November 2010 to be the Center for Research and Innovation in Systems Safety (CRISS). CRISS, directed by Dr. Nicole Werner, remains located within the Department of Anesthesiology, but now serves as an institution-wide resource for human factors and systems design and improvement in health care.
Using a range of human factors engineering, cognitive psychology, and biomedical informatics techniques, CRISS studies clinical performance during patient care and in realistic simulations to better understand how and why care deviates from optimal. Interventions are then designed and evaluated to improve safety and quality. CRISS is actively involved in improving the user interfaces of Vanderbilts custom clinical information systems as well as in evaluating and redesigning of patient safety and quality care processes and tools.
Of particular interest to CRISS faculty are the effects of the introduction of new medical technology on clinical care processes. Specific studies examine human-technology interactions, as well as individual and group performance-shaping factors such as fatigue, workload, divided attention, and novel methods of information presentation. In addition to generating practical benefits in terms of improved clinical care processes, the Centers research addresses fundamental questions about the nature of expertise, interpersonal communication, situation awareness, and decision-making under stress.