All Content

Patient engagement in safety has evolved from obscurity to maturity over the past two decades. This Annual Perspective highlights emerging approaches to engaging patients and caregivers in safety efforts, including novel technological innovations, and summarizes the existing evidence on the efficacy of such approaches.

This piece describes the evolution of the patient advocacy movement, including the events that spurred it, resulting reforms, and the impact of online access to medical information.

Dr. Kronick has served as director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality since August 2013, and will be stepping down from the role this month. We spoke with him about AHRQ's efforts to develop measurements and implement improvements in patient safety.

This piece highlights the advantages to and limitations of engaging patients in patient safety.

Beverley Johnson is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care.

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.