95- 629 C.M.R. ch. 3, § 2
1.Applicant. "Applicant" means the hospital submitting a completed Safety Star Application Form to MQF.
2.Application. "Application" means the process whereby a hospital requests consideration for the Safety Star award by submitting a completed Safety Star Application Form to MQF.
3.Best Practice. "Best practice" means a suggestion of medical treatment and/or medical care process that experts have agreed upon and accepted for particular circumstances.
4.Hospital. "Hospital" is any acute care institution required to be licensed pursuant to 22 M.R.S.A., chapter 405.
5.MQF. "MQF" means Maine Quality Forum, an independent division of the Dirigo Health Agency tasked with improving the quality of health care in Maine.
6.M.R.S.A. "M.R.S.A." means Maine Revised Statutes Annotated.
7.NQF. "NQF" means National Quality Forum, a private, not-for-profit organization created to develop and implement a national strategy for healthcare quality measurement and reporting.
8.Policy Review. A "policy review" is a review of written policy, along with observation and interviews to determine if a policy reflects recognized best practice, and is commonly acknowledged, understood and practiced across all organizational levels.
9.Public Display. "Public display" means placing information in a medium in such a way as to attract attention to the information.
10.Reapplication. "Reapplication" means the process whereby an applicant that does not meet three or fewer safe practice thresholds makes changes to improve upon those practices and have just those missed practices validated for the Safety Star.
11.Reconsideration. "Reconsideration" means the re-review process for a Safety Star award decision whereby an applicant who does not receive the Safety Star award requests a reexamination of that decision.
12.Record Review. "Record review" means a review of patient charts and other hospital records.
13.Safe Practice. High priority practices that demonstrate evidence of efficacy, are generalizable, are usable, and when implemented fully will improve significantly the safety of patients. A safe practice is a process, technique, method or protocol that has been demonstrated to improve patient safety when appropriately implemented.
14.Safety Star Manual. "Safety Star Manual" refers to the most recent version of the MQF published Safety Star Manual, which outlines the Safety Star practices, thresholds, and application processes. The Safety Star Manual contains application and reapplication forms.
15.Site Visit. A "site visit" is the process of a Site Visit Team going to an applicant's facility to conduct policy reviews and record reviews to validate that the applicant has met or exceeded the threshold for each Safety Star safe practice.
16.Site Visit Report. The "Site Visit Report" is the document the Site Visit Team completes after a site visit and submits to the MQF Director. The Validation Manual contains the Site Visit Report form.
17.Site Visit Team (SVT). "Site Visit Team" or "SVT" means a group of members from the Validation Team who conduct a site visit to validate a Safety Star application.
18.Standards. "Standards" are the criteria upon which hospitals will be assessed. Standards are built upon the NQF Safe Practices and micro-specified via established thresholds for achievement.
19.Threshold. "Threshold" is the minimum requirement (established by MQF) for achieving recognition of adequate implementation of a Safety Star safe practice.
20.Validation. "Validation" is a process for confirming the representations of the applicant.
21.Validation Criteria. "Validation criteria" are the guidelines for the information SVT members look for during site visits to validate that applicants meet the thresholds for all Safety Star safe practices.
22.Validation Forms. "Validation forms" are completed by the SVT during site visits as part of the Site Visit Report.
23.Validation Manual. "Validation Manual" refers to the most recent version of the MQF published Validation Manual, which describes the Safety Star validation process, validation criteria, and the roles of the Validation Team and Site Visit Teams. The Validation Manual also contains the forms needed to complete the validation process.
24.Validation Team (VT). "Validation Team" means the group of quality improvement healthcare professionals who volunteer to assist with the development and refinement of Safety Star validation criteria as well as comprise the Site Visit Teams.
95- 629 C.M.R. ch. 3, § 2