Office of Patient Safety and Quality

The responsibility of this office is to coordinate NIMH efforts around patient safety and quality assurance. It also represents NIMH on various NIH Clinical Center patient safety and quality initiatives and committees. In addition, it reviews and tracks hospital problem occurrences (submitted through the Safety Tracking & Reporting System-- STARS system). NIMH staff are expected to report any serious events (suicide attempt, prolonged hospitalization, death, AWOL, negative clinical outcome, medication errors, patient injuries, harassment, etc.) to the Office of the Clinical Director and the IRB in a timely manner.

Patient Safety and Quality (PSQ) Meeting

This office coordinates monthly Patient Safety & Quality (PSQ) meetings where each NIMH research group presents a lab-specific Patient Safety/Quality Improvement project. In addition to QI presentations, the NIMH Clinical Director uses this meeting to make patient safety announcements, track, trend, and report (STARS). Information relevant to NIMH, and to disseminate general matters related to the "State of the Institute.”

OCD Staff

Lisa Horowitz, Ph.D., MPH
301-435-6052

Deborah Snyder, LCSW
301-594-7379

Katherine W. Todman, LCSW-C
301-496-8782