The past month has been a whirlwind for Paul Barach, M.D., M.P.H., director of the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Center for Public Safety. The center opened January 13 on the fourth floor of the Institute Building at Jackson Memorial Hospital and the accolades – and questions – have been pouring in ever since.

“The response has been fabulous, ranging from excitement for the new facility to questions such as ‘when can I bring in my team?’” Barach said. “This center gives us the tools to drive a safety culture and will allow us to take on health care the way it’s never been taken on in the past. It should allow us to re-design health care. There’s no reason why, in 2005 we should not have a place like this. Without it, you lose, the state loses and the patient loses. Not in that order.”

Response, though has been favorable from all sides, he said.

“I’ve been talking with different reporters in English and Spanish and it’s heartening to see how media understands this and has gotten behind it. The press realizes that the face the future, we need centers such as this.”

Key components of the center are the simulation laboratory and the healthcare product visibility laboratory. The simulation laboratory, for example, consists of six parts: a mock emergency room, mock emergency room/intensive-care area, control room, conference room, microsimulation laboratory and standard patient rooms.

A mock-surgery was performed in the UM/Jackson Center for Patient Safety’s “operating room” during the grand opening event on January 13.

The Center for Patient Safety at UM/JMH is not the first center for the study of patient safety in the nation, but it is unique in its comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to patient safety through research, clinical and scientific investigation and hands-on training.

“Then, at the end of the day, we can step back and see if we have actually delivered better health service to our patients,” Barach said. “If we don’t, we’ve stayed in the ivory tower. We don’t want that.”

“This is going to be a model because it is much broader than just looking at one certain set of conditions,” said Marvin O’Quinn, CEO of Jackson Health System and president of the Public Health Trust. “In this setting we can simulate a whole variety of circumstances, conditions, procedures and emergencies. We think we can actually change how residents and clinical staff are changed in the future.”

The Center for Patient Safety also is poised to serve as the fulcrum for leveraging needed change in the healthcare industry. Last year, the center led a state coalition to pass the most comprehensive patient safety legislation in the country.

“We locked our arms and elbows,” Barach said. “It was too complex to do it individually. We all came together to craft the legislation.”

CPS staff members already have become active in publishing studies on safety-related issues, including adverse-event disclosure. The CPS also will be used as to pose challenges to the medical industry and its professionals as it seeks better, safer ways to deliver care.

“That’s all part of pushing the envelope,” Barach says. “There are plenty of opportunities for us out there, but only if we are willing to move from the traditional paradigm.”

Other key initiatives the center has backed include creation and implementation of a patient-centered curriculum used in the training of medical professionals, the design of medical devices, the study of patient-care safety team training methods and in community outreach on patient safety and quality improvement projects.

“This is the future of medical education,” Barach says.