We care about the health and safety of patients.
We have provided tools and resources to involve everyone, from patients to providers, in ensuring the safety of our healthcare process.
Be Aware. Patient Safety Awareness Week is an annual education and awareness campaign for healthcare. Each year, healthcare organizations internationally take part in the event by prominently displaying the NPSF campaign logo and promotional materials within their organizations, creating awareness in the community and utilizing NPSF educational resources among hospital staff and patients. The theme for 2012 is Be Aware for Safe Care.
Ask Questions.
Questions Are the Answer is a public education initiative from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) with free tools to encourage patients and their clinicians to engage in effective two-way communication to ensure safer care and better health outcomes.
Time to Talk is is an educational campaign to encourage patients and their health care providers to openly discuss the use of complementary health practices.
Learn More. Use these additional resources to take an active role in the safety of your health or the health of your patients.
Patients.
- Preventing Infections in the Hospital – What You as a Patient Can Do
- Safety As You Go from Hospital to Home – A Consumer Fact Sheet
- National Patient Safety Foundation – tools for patients and consumers
- Quality Care Finder - for patients to compare the quality of care and services of local healthcare providers
- National Patient Safety Awareness Foundation - a central voice for patient safety committed to a collaborative approach
- Partnership for Patients – created to keep patients from getting sicker and to help patients heal without complication
- Beneficiary Education Tools for Care Transitions - tools designed to make the path of care you take once discharged from the hospital safer and smoother
- 20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors: Patient Fact Sheet - what patients can do to stay safe in our healthcare system
- Website Resources for Patients
- Quality Care Finder – Compare the quality of care and services of local health care providers.
- National Patient Safety Awareness Foundation
- Partnership for Healthcare Excellence Website
- Partnership for Patients Website
Physicians.
- TeamSTEPPS® - Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS®) is a systematic approach developed by the Department of Defense and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to integrate teamwork into practice. Free training curricula and ready-to-use materials are available.
- AHRQ CUSP Toolkit - Hospital intensive care units across the country have used AHRQ’s Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) toolkit to make care safer for their patients. The CUSP toolkit helps frontline caregivers build the capacity to address safety issues by combining clinical best practices with an understanding of the science of safety, improved safety culture, and an increased focus on teamwork.
- 2012 CRE Toolkit - To help protect patients and prevent transmission of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), CDC has released a CRE toolkit, which expands on the 2009 CDC recommendations and continues to be updated as new information becomes available.
- What You Can Do to Make Healthcare Safer – A Consumer Fact Sheet
- Read Labels. Stay Informed. – a poster for provider practices
- Posters from Partnership for Healthcare
- MATCH Toolkit - Medications at Transitions and Clinical Handoffs (MATCH) from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
- Provider Education Tools for Care Transitions
- Reducing Healthcare Associated Infections
- Reducing Healthcare Acquired Conditions
- Using EHRs for Care Management
- Webinar: AHRQ Quality Indicator Toolkit
