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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.

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Latest Toolkits

Diagnostic Safety Toolkit.

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 Person- and Family-Centered Care.

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 (101)
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 252 Results
Displaying 1 - 20 of 252 Results
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    • Book/Report
    Healthcare Simulation Dictionary, Third Edition.
    Lioce L, Lopreiato J, Anderson M, et al, eds and the Terminology and Concepts Working Group. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; January 2025. AHRQ Publication No. 24-0077.
    The terms in the initial collection have been expanded to reflect changes in the field which now includes artificial intelligence and gamification. This third edition includes a broader set of terms related to patient safety. The document will continue to be refined and expanded over time.
    Multi-use Website
    Core Elements of Hospital Diagnostic Excellence (DxEx).
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    Diagnostic excellence is an expansion of the diagnostic error reduction movement that encompasses a range of quality and safety activities. This effort highlights six structural elements for driving improvement in diagnostic processes, including leadership commitment and accountability, patient engagement, and multidisciplinary diagnostic teams. Assessment tools and a medical test checklist are available to aid in prioritization of improvement work and in-patient/medical team communication.
    Measurement Tool/Indicator
    Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture.
    Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; October 2020.
    Challenges to establishing and sustaining a safety culture in a nursing home include insufficient staffing and a tendency to blame individuals for problems. This website hosts the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Nursing Home Survey along with additional materials to assist organizations in using the management tool effectively. It includes a user's guide that explains how to conduct a survey on patient safety in a nursing home and report the results. The resource provides guidance on topics such as data collection, data organization, survey forms, and nursing home staff selection. The 2024 data collection period is now closed.
    Toolkit
    Quality Institute Toolkits.
    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.
    Toolkit
    TeamSTEPPS for Diagnosis Improvement.

    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.
    Toolkit
    AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit. 3rd edition.

    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.
    Measurement Tool/Indicator
    Classic
    Surveys on Patient Safety Culture.
    Rockville MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2020.
    Culture has been described as a key to establishing high reliability organizations. The National Quality Forum's Safe Practices for Healthcare and the Leapfrog Group both mandate hospitals to regularly assess their safety culture. This AHRQ Web site provides validated safety culture survey tools (Hospital, Medical Office, Nursing Home, Community Pharmacy, Ambulatory Surgery Center), user guides health care organizations can use to implement the surveys and a bibliography of articles discussing the use of SOPS in the field. Organizations can also use the AHRQ database to compare their Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) results. In addition, reports are available that summarize the benchmarking data across cohorts nationwide. An AHRQ WebM&M perspective discussed how to establish a safety culture. The 2024 Nursing Home Survey data collection period is open October 1-21, 2024.
    Measurement Tool/Indicator
    Sentinel Event Data Summary.
    Joint Commission.
    This website provides sentinel event data reported to The Joint Commission, which includes information on sentinel events reported from January through December 2023. Falls, wrong surgery and unintended retained foreign bodies were among the most frequently submitted incidents in this time period. The data and graphs are updated regularly and include a 10 year trend analysis and specific analysis associated with event source by year from 2013 through 2023.
    Multi-use Website
    Diagnostic Safety Supplemental Item Set for Medical Office SOPS.

    Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 

    Safe diagnosis in medical offices is challenged by staff workload, communication, and poor information sharing. This Supplemental Item Set for the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Medical Office Survey (MOSOPS) examines elements contributing to time availability, testing and referrals, and provider and staff communication. The Diagnostic Safety Supplemental Item Set 2024 survey results report is now available.
    Fact Sheet/FAQs
    What Do You Do If You Think You Have Been Harmed By Your Healthcare.

    Seattle, WA: Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement; 2023.

    There is a need for patients and families to understand effective routes for action should they experience harm. This FAQ shares steps for patients and families to take to help them get the communication and resolution they need from organizations and clinicians to effectively resolve concerns.
    Fact Sheet/FAQs
    Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings.
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    The hand hygiene guidelines represent part of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strategy to promote patient safety by reducing infections in health care settings. The site includes fact sheets, a press kit, and other materials to help implement the guidelines.
    Organizational Policy/Guidelines
    Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals.
    Plymouth Meeting, PA: Institute for Safe Medication Practices; 2024.
    This updated report outlines 22 consensus-based best practices to ensure safe medication administration, such as diluted solutions of vincristine in minibags and standardized metrics for patient weight. The set of recommended practices has been reviewed and updated every two years since it was first developed in 2014 to include actions related to eliminating the prescribing of fentanyl patches for acute pain and use of information about medication safety risks from other organizations to motivate improvement efforts. The 2024-2025 edition includes new practices that are associated with tranexamic acid wrong-route errors, transitions of care, and vaccines.
    Toolkit
    Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) Toolkit for Exploring Diagnostic Quality.
    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.
    Fact Sheet/FAQs
    Five Medication Safety Tips for Older Adults.
    FDA Consumer Health Information. Silver Spring, MD: US Food and Drug Administration; February 15, 2024.
    Highlighting how aging affects medication absorption that may lead to complications, this fact sheet offers recommendations for older patients to follow instructions, maintain a medication list, be aware of drug interaction potential, and perform an annual review of medications with clinicians to help them take prescriptions safely.
    Fact Sheet/FAQs
    ISMP's List of High-Alert Medications in Acute Care Settings.
    Horsham, PA; Institute for Safe Medication Practices: 2024.
    This fact sheet lists medications with a high risk of causing significant harm to patients when incorrectly administered. The 2024 publication reflects insights gathered through a survey of current medication use in acute care facilities. The update includes the addition of tranexamic acid injections as a high alert medication based on survey results, error reports and expert review.
    Toolkit
    Rethinking Patient Safety: A Discussion Guide for Patients, Healthcare Providers and Leaders.

    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.
    Toolkit
    Hospital Harm Project.
    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.
    Measurement Tool/Indicator
    ISMP Survey on High-Alert Medications in Acute Care Settings.
    Plymouth Meeting, PA: Institute for Safe Medication Practices; 2023.
    Experience from the sharp end helps to inform safety improvement initiatives. The results from this field survey will inform the revision of a high-alert medication list used to raise awareness about certain drugs that have heightened potential to cause patient harm if used incorrectly. The deadline for submitting comments has passed.
    Toolkit
    Toolkits To Reduce Hypertension in Pregnancy and Obstetric Hemorrhage.

    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.
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