In addition to its own studies, the Department of Health Services Research helps others within PAMF and its parent network, Sutter Health, conduct projects to improve patient care. Recent initiatives include the following:

Medication interactions: This project studies the impact of PAMF's electronic medical record (EMR) system on medication prescribing patterns. When a physician prescribes a medication, the EMR automatically checks for interactions with other drugs that have been prescribed. The project will evaluate the effectiveness of this function and may lead to improvements that further reduce the chance of drug interactions occurring.

Pediatric asthma: By choosing several indicators to follow over time, this Sutter-wide project will examine how well the network currently serves pediatric asthma patients. Improvements in asthma monitoring, medication management, patient education and other areas will then be recommended.

Prostate cancer: Still in the planning stages, this project aims to disseminate more widely carefully selected patient education resources. It will also survey patients diagnosed with prostate cancer at any Sutter affiliate, gathering information on treatment decision making, outcomes and patient satisfaction. Recommendations to improve care will follow.
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