About TeamSTEPPS

The American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA), the National Association of Orthopaedic Nurses (NAON), the Association of periOperative Nurses (AORN), and the American Academy of Physician Assistants have joined with AAOS in support of this program.

Medical error and the patient safety movement have been increasingly prominent in the thinking and actions of healthcare professionals and policy makers over the past decade, particularly following the IOM report and follow-on analyses revealing nearly one hundred thousand (potentially) preventable deaths annually from medical error. Over the past decade, many approaches have been developed and promoted by numerous government entities (Veterans Administration-VA, DoD, AHRQ, Center for Medicare Services-CMS) and many organizations (NQF-National Quality Forum, Leapfrog Group, IHI-Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education- ACGME, The Joint Commission, AAMC-American Association of Medical Colleges) and others.

The AAOS has made a commitment to educate interdisciplinary teams of orthopaedic surgeons, other physicians, and allied health professionals providing musculoskeletal care to patients in the hospital, ambulatory surgery center, and clinic.

TeamSTEPPS has been recognized as a strong evidence-based program, synergistic with other initiatives and focused on patient care quality and safety, which has actively presented solutions focusing on the skills of leadership, situation monitoring, mutual support, and communication. These are skills, with accompanying tools and strategies, which are eminently usable by the orthopaedic surgeons in the operating room, offices and clinics.

TeamSTEPPS is a teamwork system designed for health care professionals that is:

• A powerful solution to improving patient safety within your organization.
• An evidence-based teamwork system to improve communication and teamwork skills among health care professionals.
• A source for ready-to-use materials and a training curriculum to successfully integrate teamwork principles into all areas of your health care system.
• Scientifically rooted in more than 20 years of research and lessons from the application of teamwork principles.
• Developed by Department of Defense's Patient Safety Program in collaboration with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

TeamSTEPPS provides higher quality, safer patient care by:

• Producing highly effective medical teams that optimize the use of information, people, and resources to achieve the best clinical outcomes for patients.
• Increasing team awareness and clarifying team roles and responsibilities.
• Resolving conflicts and improving information sharing.
• Eliminating barriers to quality and safety.

For more information about TeamSTEPPS visit: AHRQ – TeamSTEPPS National Implementation