All Content

This television news interview discusses results of a recent analysis of patient safety improvement efforts, describes the Partnership for Patients program, and offers tips to involve patients in safety.

Launched in 2011, the Partnership for Patients plans to invest approximately $1 billion total in an effort to decrease preventable harm in United States hospitals. Its emphasis on partnerships (between government, provider organizations, payers, and patients) echoes certain Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) campaigns, developed by Medicare director Dr. Donald Berwick while he led IHI. The Partnership focuses on skill building, demonstration projects, and collaboratives. Through 2019, the Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks will work to achieve a 20% decrease in overall patient harm and a 12% reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions as a population-based measure from the 2014 baseline. In September 2015, the program awarded $110 million to 17 national, regional, or state hospital associations and health system organizations. CMS estimates that 2.1 million fewer patients were harmed and nearly $20 in health care costs were saved from 2010 to 2014. Medicare hopes these recent monetary awards will continue to drive this momentum on improving patient safety. This project has now ended. 

This publication highlights AHRQ's patient safety research efforts in the 10 years since the Institute of Medicine report, To Err Is Human, was published.

This special series of articles highlights the progress and current state of patient safety since the landmark IOM report. The series was developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as a method to critically evaluate their efforts, and those of their grantees, in funding more than 230 patient safety projects. The compilation showcases AHRQ's efforts to catalyze innovation and advance knowledge in patient safety, reflected in part by the articles in this series. An introductory editorial highlights themes that should drive the next 10 years of patient safety progress, which include changing safety culture, increasing transparency in providing care and examining risk, embracing the power of multidisciplinary teams, realizing the benefits of information technology, and approaching every issue through the patient's eyes.

This report discusses Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) involvement in patient safety activities between 2004-2005 and provides suggestions for future actions. This document is the third of four yearly publications funded by AHRQ to assess their work.

This Web site provides access to presentation materials from AHRQ's first annual conference, held in September 2007.

This study surveyed emergency room nurses, and while most respondents reported adequate resources and support when reporting a medical error, the authors highlight several opportunities for systematic improvement.