National Patient Safety Foundation
Encyclopedia
The National Patient Safety Foundation is an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
This program provides a way for organizations to participate in the patient safety
movement both within their environment and across their communities. Stand Up for Patient Safety provides information on safety implementation strategies, along with tools to facilitate incorporation into the organization’s culture and enhance existing safety and quality programs. Stand Up for Patient Safety provides program materials and resources for healthcare stakeholders. A teamwork approach is encouraged by providing coordinated implementation materials tailored to specific audiences – administration, trustees, clinical staff, patients and families, and communities. The need for partnership between healthcare providers and patients and families is emphasized by materials specifically targeted at engaging patients as active participants in the healthcare process.
The program includes access to a web-based forum to discuss approaches and strategies, pose questions, and exchange information on best practices. The Stand Up for Patient Safety program is available for both inpatient and physician practice/ambulatory settings.
Annual Patient Safety Congress
The NPSF Patient Safety Congress brings together key healthcare stakeholders committed to patient safety and is designed to share learnings, present tools and solutions, and arm attendees with the implementation strategies and knowledge they need to foster change. This event attracts healthcare executives, board members, administrators, clinical leaders, patient safety officers and risk managers, quality improvement directors, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, solution
s providers, government leaders and policy professionals, educators, researchers, and the leading experts in the patient safety field.
Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation
The Lucian Leape
Institute is charged with defining strategic paths and calls to action for the field of patient safety. The Institute convenes two topic-specific roundtables annually on transformative concepts for safety in health care. The resultant reports and recommendations are designed to provide guidance for the field and challenge the healthcare system to address issues critical to making the system safer.
Corporate Council
Leading healthcare solutions providers take part in the National Patient Safety Foundation’s Corporate Council to enhance their understanding of the issue of patient safety and the challenges faced by their customers. The Corporate Council provides a forum for these industry leaders to work alongside NPSF Board members, healthcare providers, hospital executives, and patients and their families to facilitate the adoption of solutions to improve patient safety
.
Patient Safety Awareness Week
This annual program, held in early March each year, is a national education and awareness-building campaign for improving patient safety at the local level. Hospitals and healthcare organizations across the country plan events to promote patient safety, utilizing tools made available by NPSF. Activities are centered on educating patients on how to become involved in their own health care, as well as working with hospitals to build partnerships with their patient community.
Research Grants Program
The National Patient Safety Foundation’s Research Grants Program seeks to stimulate new, innovative projects directed toward enhancing patient safety in the United States. The program’s objective is to promote studies leading to the prevention of human errors, system errors, patient injuries, and the consequences of such adverse events in the healthcare setting. Since 1998, the National Patient Safety Foundation research grant program has supported 32 research projects with nearly $3.2 million in funding. A majority of these grants have been awarded to interdisciplinary teams to support research on diverse topics in areas such as medication errors, organizational design, and disclosure or communication issues.
Partnership for Clear Health Communication at the National Patient Safety Foundation
The Partnership for Clear Health Communication (PCHC) is dedicated to improving health literacy
. Low health literacy is associated with poor health outcomes, including increased hospitalization rates, fewer preventive screenings, and higher rates of disease and mortality. PCHC is educating patients and providers about health literacy, developing and applying practical solutions to improve patient-provider communication, and serving as the voice for health literacy and health communication.
Patient and Family Program
The work of the Patient and Family Program is critical to the NPSF mission and programs, helping to ensure the presence of the patient and family perspective and the voice of those harmed by adverse events. The program has delivered work such as The Universal Patient Compact: Principles for Partnership, a statement of principles established by NPSF that defines "the
elements of true and effective partnering between patients and providers", and Patients and Families in Patient Safety: Nothing About Me, Without Me, a call to action for healthcare organizations at all levels to involve patients and families in the care process. The program also offers Community Engagement from the Patient and Family Perspective, a day-long session at the NPSF Annual Patient Safety Congress that provides perspectives and ideas to support engaging communities in patient safety work.
Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship
The Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship provides healthcare professionals across the country an opportunity to learn and integrate innovative strategies within their own organizations. These changes translate into ensuring superior patient care and saving lives. The HRET Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship is sponsored by the Health Research & Educational Trust, National Patient Safety Foundation, American Hospital Association, Health Forum, American Organization of Nurse Executives, American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, Society of Hospital Medicine, and the American Hospital Association Quality Center.
Providing a forum for constructive conversation on issues of patient safety, the Patient Safety ListServ presently serves a community of more than 2500 individuals from around the world, including patients and families, researchers, providers, administrators and those in the boardroom.
Patient and Family Resource Guide
NPSF has compiled an extensive list of resources to help patients and family members navigate through the health system and find answers to their questions.
Ask Me 3 Health Literacy Materials
Ask Me 3 is an educational program designed to improve communication between patients and providers through focus on three basic questions. Numerous information sheets, as well as brochures and posters, are available. Ask Me 3 is a program of the Partnership for Clear Health Communication at the National Patient Safety Foundation.
Journal of Patient Safety
This peer-reviewed, quarterly publication focuses on patient safety and error reduction in healthcare settings and is the official journal of the National Patient Safety Foundation.
Current Awareness Literature Alert
The NPSF Information Resource Center monitors the landscape of patient safety by identifying articles of interest to the patient safety community. This twice-monthly publication pinpoints items from a wide array of publications.
Focus on Patient Safety Newsletter
This online quarterly publication provides coverage of key patient safety topics and features patient safety research, improvement initiatives, and personal stories, as well as news and announcements from the National Patient Safety Foundation.
Programs
Stand Up For Patient SafetyThis program provides a way for organizations to participate in the patient safety
Patient safety
Patient safety is a new healthcare discipline that emphasizes the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical error that often leads to adverse healthcare events. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not well known until the 1990s, when multiple countries reported...
movement both within their environment and across their communities. Stand Up for Patient Safety provides information on safety implementation strategies, along with tools to facilitate incorporation into the organization’s culture and enhance existing safety and quality programs. Stand Up for Patient Safety provides program materials and resources for healthcare stakeholders. A teamwork approach is encouraged by providing coordinated implementation materials tailored to specific audiences – administration, trustees, clinical staff, patients and families, and communities. The need for partnership between healthcare providers and patients and families is emphasized by materials specifically targeted at engaging patients as active participants in the healthcare process.
The program includes access to a web-based forum to discuss approaches and strategies, pose questions, and exchange information on best practices. The Stand Up for Patient Safety program is available for both inpatient and physician practice/ambulatory settings.
Annual Patient Safety Congress
The NPSF Patient Safety Congress brings together key healthcare stakeholders committed to patient safety and is designed to share learnings, present tools and solutions, and arm attendees with the implementation strategies and knowledge they need to foster change. This event attracts healthcare executives, board members, administrators, clinical leaders, patient safety officers and risk managers, quality improvement directors, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, solution
Solution
In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of only one phase. In such a mixture, a solute is dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. The solvent does the dissolving.- Types of solutions :...
s providers, government leaders and policy professionals, educators, researchers, and the leading experts in the patient safety field.
Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation
The Lucian Leape
Lucian Leape
Dr. Lucian Leape MD is a physician and professor at Harvard School of Public Health, who has been very active in trying to improve the medical system to reduce medical error. In 1994 he had an article, "Error in Medicine," published in JAMA...
Institute is charged with defining strategic paths and calls to action for the field of patient safety. The Institute convenes two topic-specific roundtables annually on transformative concepts for safety in health care. The resultant reports and recommendations are designed to provide guidance for the field and challenge the healthcare system to address issues critical to making the system safer.
Corporate Council
Leading healthcare solutions providers take part in the National Patient Safety Foundation’s Corporate Council to enhance their understanding of the issue of patient safety and the challenges faced by their customers. The Corporate Council provides a forum for these industry leaders to work alongside NPSF Board members, healthcare providers, hospital executives, and patients and their families to facilitate the adoption of solutions to improve patient safety
Patient safety
Patient safety is a new healthcare discipline that emphasizes the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical error that often leads to adverse healthcare events. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not well known until the 1990s, when multiple countries reported...
.
Patient Safety Awareness Week
This annual program, held in early March each year, is a national education and awareness-building campaign for improving patient safety at the local level. Hospitals and healthcare organizations across the country plan events to promote patient safety, utilizing tools made available by NPSF. Activities are centered on educating patients on how to become involved in their own health care, as well as working with hospitals to build partnerships with their patient community.
Research Grants Program
The National Patient Safety Foundation’s Research Grants Program seeks to stimulate new, innovative projects directed toward enhancing patient safety in the United States. The program’s objective is to promote studies leading to the prevention of human errors, system errors, patient injuries, and the consequences of such adverse events in the healthcare setting. Since 1998, the National Patient Safety Foundation research grant program has supported 32 research projects with nearly $3.2 million in funding. A majority of these grants have been awarded to interdisciplinary teams to support research on diverse topics in areas such as medication errors, organizational design, and disclosure or communication issues.
Partnership for Clear Health Communication at the National Patient Safety Foundation
The Partnership for Clear Health Communication (PCHC) is dedicated to improving health literacy
Health literacy
Health literacy is an individual's ability to read, understand and use healthcare information to make decisions and follow instructions for treatment...
. Low health literacy is associated with poor health outcomes, including increased hospitalization rates, fewer preventive screenings, and higher rates of disease and mortality. PCHC is educating patients and providers about health literacy, developing and applying practical solutions to improve patient-provider communication, and serving as the voice for health literacy and health communication.
Patient and Family Program
The work of the Patient and Family Program is critical to the NPSF mission and programs, helping to ensure the presence of the patient and family perspective and the voice of those harmed by adverse events. The program has delivered work such as The Universal Patient Compact: Principles for Partnership, a statement of principles established by NPSF that defines "the
elements of true and effective partnering between patients and providers", and Patients and Families in Patient Safety: Nothing About Me, Without Me, a call to action for healthcare organizations at all levels to involve patients and families in the care process. The program also offers Community Engagement from the Patient and Family Perspective, a day-long session at the NPSF Annual Patient Safety Congress that provides perspectives and ideas to support engaging communities in patient safety work.
Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship
The Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship provides healthcare professionals across the country an opportunity to learn and integrate innovative strategies within their own organizations. These changes translate into ensuring superior patient care and saving lives. The HRET Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship is sponsored by the Health Research & Educational Trust, National Patient Safety Foundation, American Hospital Association, Health Forum, American Organization of Nurse Executives, American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, Society of Hospital Medicine, and the American Hospital Association Quality Center.
Resources and Publications
Patient Safety ListServProviding a forum for constructive conversation on issues of patient safety, the Patient Safety ListServ presently serves a community of more than 2500 individuals from around the world, including patients and families, researchers, providers, administrators and those in the boardroom.
Patient and Family Resource Guide
NPSF has compiled an extensive list of resources to help patients and family members navigate through the health system and find answers to their questions.
Ask Me 3 Health Literacy Materials
Ask Me 3 is an educational program designed to improve communication between patients and providers through focus on three basic questions. Numerous information sheets, as well as brochures and posters, are available. Ask Me 3 is a program of the Partnership for Clear Health Communication at the National Patient Safety Foundation.
Journal of Patient Safety
This peer-reviewed, quarterly publication focuses on patient safety and error reduction in healthcare settings and is the official journal of the National Patient Safety Foundation.
Current Awareness Literature Alert
The NPSF Information Resource Center monitors the landscape of patient safety by identifying articles of interest to the patient safety community. This twice-monthly publication pinpoints items from a wide array of publications.
Focus on Patient Safety Newsletter
This online quarterly publication provides coverage of key patient safety topics and features patient safety research, improvement initiatives, and personal stories, as well as news and announcements from the National Patient Safety Foundation.