Accreditation for Patient Care

All affiliated hospitals participating in SUNY sponsored residency programs must be accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Non-hospital affiliated facilities must be accredited by appropriate accrediting agencies.

For more information go to www.jointcommission.org

Patient Safety and Quality of Care

Our programs and institutions are committed to and responsible for promoting patient safety, quality health care, resident well-being and to providing a supportive educational environment.

Residents are educated in an environment in which:

• Patients must be safe, and receive excellent care, in the teaching setting.
• Patients must be safe, and receive excellent care, in the setting of the unsupervised care of patients in the future career of today’s residents based on the education resident receive today.
• Residents must be educated in a humanistic educational environment that protects their safety, and nurtures professionalism and the effacement of self interest that is the core of the practice of medicine and the profession in the Unites States.

Respecting obligations toward patient safety and quality of care and to assure our residents are trained to continue fulfilling this professional obligation now and in their the future, our program’s and institutions abide by principles and expectations assuring appropriate resident supervision, resident and faculty professionalism and fitness for duty, patient safety and quality improvement expectations, handover processes and inter-professional communications, as well as duty hours.

Residents are expected to become educated in patient safety and quality of care as well as engage in active experiential learning in this domain in clinical settings.

For more information go to www.ahrq.gov

Residents and Quality Assurance

SUNY Downstate must monitor and ensure resident knowledge of, and participation in its formal quality assurance programs. This will be accomplished through the GMEC’s periodic internal reviews and on-going oversight by the GME Office. Presentations on quality assurance and patient safety, including lectures and educational films, will be given to all new residents at orientation held each June. Additional presentations, journals and brochures are provided to residents during their course of training. Residents are also expected to engage in experiential learning by participating in performance improvement and quality assurance activities including reporting, investigations and analyses, projects and committees.