The Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at UNT Health Fort Worth is the nation’s sole medical school that requires students to pass a patient safety exam, The Dallas Morning News reported Oct. 21.
The Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine’s curriculum includes the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Certified Professional in Patient Safety credential, according to Dallas News. The certification covers culture, systems thinking, human factors engineering and design, safety risks and responses, and performance improvement.
Before the exam, third-year medical school students take a two-week course focused on patient safety. For those two weeks, students self-study each morning and have a four-hour course in the afternoons.
Frank Filipetto, DO, a professor and interim chair of family medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine at UNT Health, told the outlet he thinks medical schools should invest more in patient safety training.
Most medical schools “do not teach patient safety to the degree that the current graduate of a medical school needs to know safety science,” said Dr. Filipetto, who was dean of the school until 2024. “This is not a couple hours. This is not a lecture.”
The IHI exam has an overall pass rate of 75%, according to the institute. Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine students pass on the first attempt 92% of the time, Dr. Filipetto said, and 98% after a retake.
The course is built around more than the credential. Students learn to report near misses and to speak up when they spot a potential error — a culture shift the school hopes they carry into residency and practice.
“I really do think that, at scale, we’re putting physicians into practice with a whole different view about safety,” Lillee Gelinas, DNP, RN, the college’s patient safety director, told Dallas News.
The stakes are high. Estimates of annual U.S. deaths from preventable medical errors range widely — from about 22,000 to more than 250,000 — with the higher figure, if accurate, ranking such errors among the leading causes of death nationwide.
The program arrives amid long-running criticism that medical schools devote too little time to safety science, often a few hours or a single lecture rather than a dedicated course. Dr. Filipetto said he wants graduates equipped to change that from within: “The system is the environment that you work in. Start with your environment.”
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