Biography at time of fellowship: Kristina Weeks, M.H.S., Dr.P.H.(c), a 2015–2016 fellow, is a faculty member in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. She is also a content expert and implementer of several nationally sponsored quality improvement projects in the U.S. aimed at preventing health care-associated infections. Ms. Weeks's research interests focus on the translation of evidence-based medicine to safe, high quality care at the bedside as well as effective health policy. For more than a decade she has dedicated her efforts in health services research towards understanding health systems related to patient safety and health disparities in the clinical environment. She has contributed to publications on access to care, quality of care at the end of life, health policy, and patient safety. Ms. Weeks holds a master of health science degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is currently completing doctoral degree in the same institution within the Department of Health Policy and Management.
Project: Lessons Learned at the Crossroads of Patient Safety and Patient-Centeredness
Though the need for increased attention to patient safety and patient-centered care were pushed into the spotlight in the 2001 seminal publication from the Institute of Medicine entitled “Crossing the Quality Chasm,” the two topics have oft been considered in separate spheres in the U.S. Recent changes in legislative frameworks, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (U.S.) and the Health Reform Agreement (Australia), have increasingly focused on the delivery of patient-centered care with a simultaneous emphasis for preventing patient harm. The goal of this research is to examine the similarities in these two fields, how they are applied and to develop a framework that enables the achievement of aims in patient safety and patient-centered care on broad scales.
The major objectives of this research are to explore links between the fields of patient-centered care and patient safety; analyze the contingent structures and formats of lessons learned in Australia and the U.S. in the implementation of patient safety and patient-centered care initiatives; examine levels of compliance with national safety standards in several cross-cutting entities in Australia; and develop a framework for U.S. and Australia to employ lessons learned in implementing patient safety and patient-centered care initiatives.
Ms. Weeks will be a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney and working with Karen Luxford, a former Harkness fellow and her team, at the Clinical Excellence Commission in Sydney, Australia.