Patient Safety Web Sites & Resources
As the premier resource for patient safety activities in Washington, we want to help you access a broad array of useful information.
In this section we provide a range of web sites and links to tools that we find pertinent to those involved with improving safety and reducing error. If you are aware of other useful resources, or have corrections, please contact us so that we can consider them for inclusion.
Click below to jump to a specific section:
General Topics and Tools *NEW*
Communication *NEW*
Hand Hygiene and Infection Control
Medication Safety *NEW*
Patient/consumer-oriented materials and information: *NEW*
General Topics and Tools
- AHRQ: Toolkit for establishing a community-based safety advisory council
- AHRQ Innovations Exchange
- AHRQ Patient Safety Organizations
- AHRQ Patient Safety Primers
- Common Formats for collecting and reporting patient safety information
- The National Center for Patient Safety (Veterans Affairs)
- The Joint Commission: National Patient Safety Goals
- The Joint Commission's 2007 Report on Improving America's Hospitals
- Institute of Medicine’s Health Care Quality Initiative
- The Institute for Healthcare Improvement
- World Health Organization patient safety programs
- Duke University Patient Safety/QI modules
- Society of Hospital Medicine’s Care Transitions for Older Adults Resource Room
- Reducing Health Care Hazards: Lessons from the Commercial Aviation Safety Team
- National Quality Report on public reporting systems and their effect on safety [.pdf] *NEW*
- Washington State Department of Health's Adverse Events website *NEW*
Communication
- Silence Kills study
- Disruptive behaviors
- Code of Conduct
- American College of Physician Executives journal – special issue on disruptive behavior *NEW*
- AHRQ Patient Safety Primer on Disruptive and Unprofessional Behavior *NEW*
Error Disclosure
- Guilty, afraid, and alone — struggling with medical error.
Delbanco T, Bell SK. N Engl J Med. 2007;357:1682-1683. - Coming Clean on Medical Mistakes
Talaga T, Cribb R. Toronto Star. March 19, 2007. - The Art of Apology
Falls
Hand Hygiene and Infection Control
General
- Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
- The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America
- Infectious Diseases Society of America
- Save Lives: Clean Your Hands
MRSA
Health Literacy
- Plain Language Toolkit (Group Health Cooperative)
- Improving Health Literacy (Group Health Cooperative)
- AMA Foundation’s Health Literacy kit and Health Literacy Video
- Health Literacy Resources (compiled by Gail Nielsen)
- Health Literacy Teleconference Presentation by Gail Nielsen [2MB .pdf, September 2008]
- Harvard School of Public Health, Health Literacy Studies: Innovative Materials
- Michigan Cancer Consortium’s booklet on prostate cancer decision-making
- National Institute for Literacy’s Health Literacy Discussion List
- Resources for tear sheets/tear pads:
Krames
Pritchell & Hull - Rhode Island Health Literacy Project
- AHRQ's Pharmacy Health Literacy Center
- CAHPS Consortium Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy
Laboratory Quality and Safety
- Institute for Quality in Laboratory Medicine (IQLM)
- National Laboratory System
- Causes, consequences, detection, and prevention of identification errors in laboratory diagnostics (article by G. Lippi et al.)
Medication Safety
General
- AHRQ's "How to Create a Pill Card"
- AHRQ's Pharmacy Health Literacy Center
- Institute for Safe Medication Practices
- ISMP’s List of Confused Drug Names
- American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
- IHI: Enhancing medication safety in the outpatient setting
- Use of "Tall Man Letters"
- U.S. Pharmacopeia: Drug Error Finder and other tools
- National Library of Medicine/FDA tool for identifying unknown medications
- National Council on Patient Information and Education
- American Society of Medication Safety Officers *NEW*
- Institute for Safe Medication Practices
- The Joint Commission: Do Not Use list
- Food and Drug Administration
Medication Reconciliation
Newsletters/misc tools
- AHRQ’s free monthly Patient Safety and Health IT e-newsletter
- AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network: What’s New This Week
Patient/consumer-oriented materials and information:
- Washington State Medical Association
- Food and Drug Administration
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
- Washington State Department of Health
- SafeMedication.com (ASHP)
- Partnership for Patient Safety
- Washington State Hospital Association
- National Quality Forum’s guidelines for Consumer-Focus Public Reporting [.pdf]
- AHRQ: Talking to Consumers about Health Care Quality
- AHRQ: Questions Are The Answer campaign
- Restaurant PSA [.wmv]
- Cell Phone PSA [.wmv]
- Consumers Advancing Patient Safety
Patient Safety Culture
- AHRQ survey
- AHRQ’s preliminary report presents results from its updated Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture.
- AHRQ Survey to Assess Medical Office Safety Culture
- Leapfrog Never Events Fact Sheet
- On-line patient safety climate survey: Tool development and lessons learned
Advances in Patient Safety: From Research to Implementation Volumes 4, AHRQ Publication Nos. 050021 (1-4). - Safety Attitudes Questionnaire and Safety Climate Survey
University of Texas, Houston
The Safety Climate Survey: Psychometric and Benchmarking Properties
Technical Report 03-03
J B Sexton and E J Thomas
Patient Safety Curriculum
Procedure Safety
Transitions and Handoffs
- Safe Intrahospital Transport of Non-ICU Patients
- Patient Handoffs
Runy LA. Hosp Health Netw. 2008 May;82:7p following 40, 2.- Transitions of Care Consensus Policy Statement American College of Physicians-Society of General Internal Medicine-Society of Hospital Medicine-American Geriatrics Society-American College of Emergency Physicians-Society of Academic Emergency Medicine
Snow V, Beck D, Budnitz T, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2009 Apr 3; [Epub ahead of print].- AHRQ Patient Safety Primer: Handoffs and Signouts
- UC San Francisco’s resources page on Enhancing Care Transitions
- IHI’s State Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations (STAAR)
Tickets to Ride
Organizations
International
- World Alliance for Patient Safety
- Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care
- Australian Patient Safety Foundation
- Canadian Patient Safety Institute
- Danish Society for Patient Safety
- National Patient Safety Agency (UK)
National
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
- AHRQ’s innovations exchange
- Food and Drug Administration
- National Patient Safety Foundation
- National Quality Forum
- National Center for Patient Safety
- The Joint Commission
Local/State/Regional
- Ann Arbor VA Medical Center/ University of Michigan Health System- Patient Safety Enhancement Program
- The Bay Area Patient Safety Collaborative
- The Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction
- National Academy for State Health Policy
- California Hospital Patient Safety Organization
- Coalition for Quality and Patient Safety of Chicagoland
- Colorado Patient Safety Coalition
- Connecticut Center for Patient Safety
- Florida Patient Safety Corporation
- Georgia Hospital Association Partnership for Health and Accountability
- Indiana Medical Error Reporting System Report
- Madison Patient Safety Collaborative
- The Maine Patient Safety Organization Network
- Maryland Patient Safety Center
- Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors
- Michigan Health and Safety Coalition
- Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety
- Mississippi Patient Safety Coalition
- Missouri Center for Patient Safety
- Ohio Patient Safety Institute
- Oregon Patient Safety Commission
- Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority
- Strategic Alliance for Error Reduction (SAFER) Healthcare California
- Texas Patient Safety Organization, Inc.
- Virginians Improving Patient Care and Safety
