Patient Safety

Resources Available on the Web

Ronda G. Hughes, ed., Patient safety and quality: an evidence-based handbook for nurses . Published by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in April 2008.

HealthIT.gov . From the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

AHRQ Patient Safety Network . This user-friendly resource from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality includes "The world's most robust collection of patient safety information: annotated links to journal articles, news, reports, tools, Web sites, and more--tagged for easy searching and browsing." This site also provides "Patient Safety Primers," summaries of key concepts on such issues as "handoffs and signoffs," "never events," and "teamwork training."

Patient Safety page of the Joint Commission website . The Joint Commission is an independent non-profit accrediting organization, whose mission is "To continuously improve health care for the public ... by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value."

AHRQ Medical Errors & Patient Safety . Links to numerous resources provided by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Drug Safety Communications .

From the Library's ebook collection: Error reduction in health care: A systems approach to improving patient safety, edited by Patrice L. Spath. 2nd ed., Jossey-Bass, 2011. From the publisher's summary: "a step-by-step guide for implementing the Institute of Medicine guidelines to reduce the frequency of errors in health care services and mitigate the impact of those errors that do occur."

Hospital Quality

Hospital Compare . This Medicare website can help you compare the quality of care for certain medical conditions at more than 4,000 hospitals and find information about Medicare Coverage in hospitals.

Data.Medicare.Gov . Information on patients' hospital experiences as well as the outcomes of care received in hospitals.

Department of Health and Human Services report from January 2012: "Hospital Incident Reporting Systems Do Not Capture Most Patient Harm ."

Joint Commission Quality Check

The Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths . A not-for-profit educational campaign to reduce hospital infection. Includes "15 Steps You Can Take to Reduce Your Risk of a Hospital Infection ."

The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) . "SHEA's mission is to prevent and control infections in healthcare settings." Its website includes resources including guides on health-care associated infections.

Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey Results . The Leapfrog Group is made up of more than 170 companies and organizations that buy health care. The group works to reduce preventable medical mistakes and improve the quality and affordability of health care.