Take a look at the brochure for your next professional society meeting and you'll likely find a session about patient safety on the agenda. Preventing medical errors, communication systems to improve patient compliance, maintaining problem and medication lists, and patient education are all hot topics.

As these issues grab headlines, however, don't overlook some of the more basic aspects of office safety. Providing a physically safe practice setting is an important component of quality care and is good business, too; many of the measures you put in place to protect patients also safeguard your staff and reduce the risk for accidents and lawsuits. 

Many medical offices are safer today thanks to two prominent government mandates. "OSHA was the big bogeyman 10 years ago, but now people are in compliance and as a result, patients are safer," says Bruce Bagley, MD, medical director of quality improvement at the American Academy of Family Physicians.

The other directive that ultimately improved safety is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). "The requirements for ramps, safety bars in bathrooms, and that sort of thing have all made the offices safer for everyone," adds Bagley.

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