Tennessee Rural Hospital Patient Safety Project

Patient safety standards and systems have been developed and conducted in large, urban hospitals and the relevance of such standards and systems for smaller, rural hospitals has not been established. The purpose of this project is to test the feasibility, cost, and impact of implementing patient safety standards in small, rural hospitals. Working with 8 hospitals in Tennessee, this project will create a sustainable infrastructure for assisting rural hospitals to implement critical safety improvements and to more toward a universal culture of safety. The resulting materials and tools will allow for broader replication in Tennessee and other states.