The Coworker Observation Reporting SystemSM (CORS) Program
Organizations routinely capture observations of unprofessional behavior by colleagues in their safety reporting systems. CPPA faculty speculated that the same processes used for coding and aggregating patient experiences could be adapted for use with co-worker observations and if coupled with the tiered intervention approach could be applied to expand support for teamwork, patient safety, and risk prevention.
CPPA’s CORS program became operational in 2013 and now supports more than 100,000 physicians, advanced practice professionals, nurses, and academicians/researches. These individuals manifest, as with PARS scores, the same non-random distribution of CORS scores (see figure below). Individuals with CORS scores are associated with high malpractice claims risk and avoidable surgical and medical complications for their patients. An unexpected finding, however, was that PARS and CORS programs identify mostly different clinical team members. This reinforces the need for health systems to have reliable processes for addressing observations from both patients and clinical team members.
PARS and CORS processes are similar with two exceptions:
1) Patient feedback is typically shared electronically by patient relations team members, while co-worker observations are typically shared in person by a peer;
2) PARS intervention data are provided annually, while CORS awareness interventions occur as soon as a professional's CORS score exceeds threshold.
The figure below shows a high-risk professional’s rank (represented by the dots) relative to all active professionals in the CORS database (the white line) and to professionals within their specialty (the blue line).
CPPA’s data also yield sub-specialty comparisons, such as individualized graphs of orthopedic sub-specialists in spine, ankle, shoulder, or wrist surgery. CPPA similarly benchmarks other specialties and their subspecialties.
