Parent willingness to remind health care workers to perform hand hygiene.

Engaging patients has been an area of emphasis for the safety movement, spurred by data demonstrating that patients often feel uncomfortable asking questions of their clinicians. This survey found that most parents of hospitalized children were interested in participating in hand hygiene efforts, but one-third would feel uncomfortable reminding health care workers to wash their hands. This reluctance has been documented in prior studies and may arise from patients' fear of endangering their relationship with the care team. In order to address these barriers, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recently published a guide to patient and family engagement in quality and safety programs, which was designed with input from clinicians and patients.