Michigan Medicine recently implemented post-mortality surveys, which are sent to caregivers after an inpatient death and meant to serve as a resource to identify areas for care improvement.
"The purpose of this survey is not to place blame on providers or judge quality of care," Sandeep Vijan, MD, program director for quality analytics at the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based system, said in a Nov. 9 blog post. "Instead, we want to use this as an opportunity to learn how we might make care better."
The electronic survey is sent to all team members involved in a patient's care within 48 hours of inpatient death. It includes "many different care-based questions" and takes a few minutes to complete.The health system clarified the survey's use as separate from the safety event reporting process.
"The safety event reporting process should always be used if there are any concerns about patient safety and/or deviations from standard processes of care. On the other hand, the post-mortality survey is sent to caregivers only after an inpatient death," the health system said, adding that both are resources to guide system care improvements.