The Chicago Patient Safety Forum was initially conceived by five individuals, Dr. Kevin Weiss, Dr. Gordon Schiff, Dr. Stephen Small, Dr. Margaret Baumann, and Dr. Gary Noskin. Following the release of the Institute of Medicine's Report, To Err is Human, it was felt that there needed to be a concerted focus on patient safety should be forged in the Chicago area.
In response to the national call to action, in 2001, a group of concerned health care providers enlisted the endorsement of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago (IOMC) and support of the Otho S. A. Sprague Memorial Institute to launch an effort to bring together local and national health care organizational representatives, policy makers, and local Chicago opinion leaders with interested individuals to forge a community-oriented multi-institutional agenda to improve patient safety in the Chicago region. This project was officially launched in Sept of 2001 with an invited workshop of over 75 health professionals, civic leaders, health care institutional representatives, and health care consumers for the purpose of defining such an agenda. Fifty leaders in medicine and public health held the inaugural meeting of CPSF on Sept 12, 2001. From this effort a Steering Committee was recruited and the Chicago Patient Safety Forum was on its way.
The overall outcome identified a large number of individuals and organizations in our community who are committed to the issue of patient safety and have the expertise and interest to provide the basis for a substantial community-based effort in this area.
The Chicago Patient Safety Forum is an independent program of the IOMC and is the regional patient safety coalition in the Chicago area whose goals include promoting a culture of safety, public awareness, and developing leadership and inter-organization collaborations to improve the safety of medical care in Chicago. The CPSF, chaired by Dr. Kevin Weiss, has a full-time Executive Director, and a Steering Committee composed of representatives of Chicago-based concerned organizations and individual experts in patient safety.
From this beginning, a Steering Committee to direct activities was originated and several topic-focused committees were established to develop agendas to target improvement in different aspects of patient safety in the Chicago area. View our current and past initiatives.
2003
CPSF has convened annual symposiums focused on the broad issues of patient safety including a full-day workshop entitled "Creating Safer Health Care in Chicago," held on February 7, 2003 at the Gleacher Center in Chicago with over 200 workshop participants. In October of 2003, "A Showcase of Patient Safety Improvements" at Rush-Presbyterian Hospital was attended by over 200 individuals.
2004
The Medical/Legal Task Force of the CPSF has had a busy and productive year. Following our large and successful meeting September 13, 2004, "Promoting Patient Safety in Illinois: Medical/Legal Aspects", a working group of hospital counsels, physicians and experts in patient safety began meeting in November. The goal of this working group was to increase the volume and quality of patient safety activities in Illinois, specifically to encourage studies with learning and sharing within and between organizations. Specifically, draft protocols are near completion with guidelines as how best to carry out such endeavors while maximizing the protections of the Illinois Medical Studies Act.
2005
On March 11, 2005 , the CPSF presented its 2005 Annual Scientific Meeting: Voices from the Field: Five Years After "To Err Is Human".
CPSF also developed several membership categories.
On July 11, 2005 CPSF presented its First Annual Membership Meeting which led into the election of our 2005-2006 Steering Committee.
2006
On March 9, 2006, CPSF presented its 2006 Annual Scientific Meeting: Culture of Safety: A System Strategy to Reduce Medical Errors and Increase Patient Safety
2007
On March 3, 2007, CPSF presented its 2006 Annual Scientific Meeting: Patient Safety: Moving From Concept to Reality.
