Perspectives

This piece, written by a national leader in safe use of medications in elderly patients, discusses strategies for improving the quality and safety of medication use in the nursing home setting.

Clear health communication is increasingly recognized as essential for promoting patient safety. Yet according to a recent Joint Commission report, What Did the Doctor Say? Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety, communication problems among health care providers, patients, and families are common and a leading root cause of adverse outcomes. Addressing health literacy—the capacity of individuals to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions—has become a primary objective for many health systems in order to protect patients from harm.

Patients have three roles in improving patient safety: helping to ensure their own safety, working with health care organizations to improve safety at the organization and unit level, and advocating as citizens for public reporting and accountability of hospital and health system performance. The following case illustrates how patients can help ensure their own safety.

Dr. Jones was sure he had increased Mr. H's cholesterol-lowering medication to 80 mg 6 months ago, but, at his visit today, his pill bottle still says 40 mg. In reviewing Ms. B's chart in preparation for performing a well-woman examination, Dr. Smith find...

A decade ago, two tragic medical errors rocked one of the world’s great cancer hospitals, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston, to its core. The errors led to considerable soul searching and, ultimately, a major change in institutional practices a...