Welcome to the latest issue of PREP Update, the free e-mail newsletter for individuals interested in receiving news and information about the Practitioner Remediation and Enhancement Partnership, a partnership of licensing boards and hospitals whose goal is to jointly identify, remediate and monitor practitioners whose practice is not up to standard but whose actions do not require discipline. Thanks to all of you who forwarded this newsletter on to colleagues, and welcome to our new subscribers. If you have feedback, please e-mail mark@4patientsafety.net! If you've received this newsletter from a colleague and would like to sign up, go to http://www.4patientsafety.net/info.htm to subscribe with your e-mail address. If you don't want to continue receiving this newsletter, unsubscribing instructions are at the end.

IN THIS ISSUE

  1. PREP Pilot Advisory Committee Meeting Recommendations
  2. PREP Highlighted at Federation of State Medical Boards
  3. PREP First Year Report Distributed

Advisory Committee Makes Recommendations for Continuing PREP

At its meeting in late January 2002 in Washington DC at CAC's offices, the Advisory Committee of the Practitioner Remediation and Enhancement Partnership recommended that PREP continue with the following goals for 2002 and 2003:

>Boards of Pharmacy be invited to participate in PREP this year, and other health care licensing boards be invited as soon as possible.

>A new report be published outlining the initial accomplishments of PREP, its relationship to the patient safety activities currently underway, and clarifying that it is not an alternative to discipline but a program to be offered at the earliest signs of deficiency

> PREP remediation planning be modified in order to more clearly identify system issues

The full advisory committee report and recommendations can be found at the web site at http://www.4patientsafety.net/prepintro.htm so take a look!

PREP HIGHLIGHTED AT FSMB MEETING IN APRIL 2002

At the Federation of State Medical Boards meeting in San Diego, CA April 25-27, 2002, PREP was highlighted by a number of speakers, including Mark Yessian, Office of the Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services, Boston MA, and West Virginia Medical Board member Lee Smith, M.D. each cited the PREP Program as a way Medical Boards could become appropriately involved in addressing medical errors.

PREP Report Distributed

The report, "Practitioner Remediation and Enhancement Partnership (PREP): Improving Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality" has been distributed to all nursing, medical and pharmacy regulatory board directors, along with an invitation to participate in this coming year of PREP. Additional copies of the report are available from CAC (http://www.cacenter.org or 212-462-1174) The report includes a summary of the program, a description of the benefits of PREP, an outline of progress in implementing PREP programs in 2001, and Questions and Answers about PREP. The report will be posted on the web site by June 1, 2002, and newsletter subscribers will be notified when it becomes available.

THANKS for reading our newsletter. If you have questions or comments about its content, e-mail mark@4patientsafety.net. Until our next issue, be well.