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Toolkits

Patient safety toolkits provide practical applications of PSNet research and concepts for front line providers to use in their day to day work. These toolkits contain resources necessary to implement patient safety systems and protocols.

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Has your organization developed a Toolkit that provides practical applications of patient safety research and concepts for front line providers to use in their day to day work? Submit your Patient Safety Toolkit for an opportunity to have it published on PSNet.

Latest Toolkits

Washington DC: Association of American Medical Colleges; 2022.

Effective communication is critical as patients shift from one level of care to another as their diagnosis evolves. This toolkit is designed to help academic medical centers initiate conversations to improve diagnostic... Read More

MHA Keystone Center. Michigan Health and Hospital Association.

Person- and family-centered (PFC) care puts the patient and their family at the center of decision making and planning for their health and healthcare. This toolkit from the MHA Keystone Center includes a roadmap... Read More

All Toolkits (114)

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 114 Results
Displaying 1 - 20 of 114 Results
AAAHC Quality Institute. Deerfield, IL: Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care.
This collection of toolkits provides resources to support safety in ambulatory care and includes information about allergy documentation, safe injection practices and medication reconciliation.

Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; June 2024.

The recognition of diagnosis as a team activity is energizing new diagnostic process initiatives. Building on the established TeamSTEPPS® principles, this new TeamSTEPPS course includes seven training modules, team and knowledge assessment tools, and implementation guidance to develop or enhance communication across the care team to improve the accuracy and timeliness of diagnosis. Training opportunities for August, September, and October 2024 are now available for registration.

Brach C, ed. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; March 2024. AHRQ Publication No. 15-0023-EF.

The AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, 3rd edition, can help primary care practices implement improvement actions to reduce the complexity of health care, increase patient understanding of health information, and enhance support for patients of all health literacy levels.
Alpharetta, GA: Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine; February 2024.
Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) can help to operationalize patient engagement in healthcare safety improvement work. This toolkit targets diagnostic excellence and educating PFAC members on the diagnostic process to enable their rich involvement in improvement work. The kit features videos, sections on the role of PFACs in diagnostic improvement, selected readings, letter templates and a glossary.

Gilbert R, Asselbergs M, Davis D, et al. Healthcare Excellence Canada; 2023.

Patient safety requires a systems approach to identify problems and arrive at lasting solutions that reduce harm. This document encourages discussion amongst a broad base of stakeholders to address all forms of harm, such as discrimination, inequality, and psychological stress, in addition to physical injury. The resource insists these components be incorporated in work to close quality and safety gaps across the health care system.
Canadian Institute for Health Information, Health Excellence Canada.
Reducing preventable harm associated with health care is a worldwide goal. This Canadian initiative developed a measure to track unintended harm in acute care hospitals, a toolkit to accompany reduction efforts, and reports that assess the results of improvement efforts and provide data analysis.

Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; July 2023.

Obstetric hemorrhage and severe high blood pressure during pregnancy are leading known causes of preventable maternal harms in the United States. The AHRQ Safety Program for Perinatal Care, Phase 2 developed toolkits consisting of case scenarios, slides, and facilitators guides to work in tandem to address these threats to maternal safety. The materials inform training opportunities to improve the safety culture of labor and delivery units and decrease maternal and neonatal adverse events that result from poor communication and system failures.

London, UK: NHS England; July 2023.

A strong patient safety culture needs nurturing to serve as a foundation for launching and sustaining improvements. This toolkit provides access to existing tools that support teamwork and communication, fairness, psychological safety, promotion of diversity and inclusivity, and civility as elements of a safety culture.
Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Department of Defense.
Effective teamwork plays an essential role in providing safe patient care. The Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) program was developed inititally in collaboration by the United States Department of Defense and AHRQ in order to support effective communication and teamwork in health care. The 3.0 version of the widely implemented program is organized around 5 key strategies: patient focus, integrated platform, modular course design, active adult learning and emergent team challenges and opportunities. It provides new tools to measure its impact, supports increased emphasis on the role of patients in teams, and includes a new pocket guide. A PSNet WebM&M commentary discussed how improved teamwork and shared decision-making might have prevented a missed diagnosis of sepsis that lead to the death of a patient.

MHA Keystone Center. Michigan Health and Hospital Association.

Person- and family-centered (PFC) care puts the patient and their family at the center of decision making and planning for their health and healthcare. This toolkit from the MHA Keystone Center includes a roadmap and self-assessment for developing policies and practices to improve person- and family centered care across the health system.

Oregon Patient Safety Commission: 2023.

Gaslighting has been identified as a contributor to maternal mortality and morbidity. This toolkit of compiled resources aims to help inform organizational activities to establish programs and strategies to reduce the impact of disrespect, implicit bias and inequities that affect the care of pregnant persons.
Yount N, Edelman S, Sorra J, et al. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; November 2022. AHRQ Publication No. 23-0011.
Improving the culture of safety within health care is an essential component of preventing or reducing errors. Designed for users of the AHRQ safety culture surveys, this updated tool will help organizations develop an action plan and proactively discuss potential barriers to safety culture improvement efforts and how to address them. The revision is structured around a 3-step process that focuses on areas to improve, initiative planning, and plan communication. The kit now includes an action plan template.
Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; July 2018.
The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Community Pharmacy Survey and accompanying toolkit were developed to collect opinions of community pharmacy staff on the safety culture at their pharmacies.

Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; October 2022. AHRQ Publication no. 22(23)-0047-2-EF.

Delayed, wrong, and missed diagnoses are common challenges for patients, families, and clinicians, yet physicians rarely receive feedback on their actions to enhance diagnostic decision making. This publication provides clinicians with tools to assess and calibrate diagnostic performance in support of individual learning and improvement.

London, England: NHS England; August 2022.

Effective response to medical error requires a comprehensive systemic and process-focused incident examination approach to ensure organizational learning. This framework will replace the current method used by the UK National Health Service (NHS) to support overarching patient safety strategic aims for the agency. The toolkit contains resources for organizations to explore the factors contributing to patient safety incidents and inform safety improvements. 

Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; July 2022.  AHRQ Publication No. 22-0038.

Diagnostic improvement continues to gain focus as a goal in health care. The Measure Dx tool provides teams with guidance and strategies to detect and learn from diagnostic errors in their organizations. It includes a checklist to gauge readiness for implementation, measurement strategies, and recommendations for analyzing data and translating findings into front line care. 

Washington DC: Association of American Medical Colleges; 2022.

Effective communication is critical as patients shift from one level of care to another as their diagnosis evolves. This toolkit is designed to help academic medical centers initiate conversations to improve diagnostic information sharing during transitions from acute care environments to non-acute care settings. Tools in the set include test follow-up vignettes for process evaluation, a communication practices, inventory and a facilitator’s guide.

Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; April 2022.

Healthcare-associated infections can result in significant morbidity and mortality. Developed by AHRQ, this customizable, educational toolkit uses the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) and other evidence-based practices to provide clinical and cultural guidance to support practice changes to prevent and reduce central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) rates in intensive care units (ICUs). Sections of the kit include items such an action plan template, implementation playbook, and team interaction aids.
Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; June 2023.
The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Medical Office Survey collects information from outpatient providers and staff about the culture of patient safety in their medical offices. The survey is intended for offices with at least three providers, but it also can be used as a tool for smaller offices to stimulate discussion about quality and patient safety issues. The survey is accompanied by a set of resources to support its use. 

AHA Team Training and Project Firstline. Chicago, IL: American Hospital Association, Center for Disease Control and Prevention; July 2021.

Problems in communication are common contributors to patient care mistakes. This toolkit draws from experience with the TeamSTEPPS model to highlight best practices in the use of huddles, debriefs and other teamwork improvement strategies.