Brown-Spath & Associates
Health Care Quality and Resource Management Specialists

Below are resources specifically designed to engage consumers in patient safety. Some of the materials are intended to educate consumers on their role in reducing medical errors and other resources are for health care professionals seeking ways to improve consumer involvement in safety initiatives. The resources are grouped into five categories:

• Health Care Safety Fact Sheets and Other Resources for Consumers
• Government and Not-For-Profit Groups
• Patient- and Family-Centered Care Organizations
• Consumer Groups
• Products/Books

The number of resources that can be used to engage consumers in patient safety continues to grow everyday. This online list of resources is periodically updated to include new information. The list was last updated in January 2008.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Consumer fact sheets and brochures (some Spanish versions):

• 20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors
• 5 Steps to Safer Health Care
• Your Guide to Choosing Quality Health Care
• Having Surgery? What you Need to Know
• Improving Health Care Quality: A Guide for Patients and Families
• Ways You Can Help Your Family Prevent Medical Errors
• 20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors in Children
• Check your Medicines
• Questions are the Answer: Get More Involved in Your Healthcare (video)
  

American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Consumer fact sheets and other resources:

• Avoiding an Epidemic of Errors
• How Herbal Supplements Interact with Medications
• Partner with Physician for Best Surgical Outcome
• Patients Have Important Role in Safer Health Care

American Society for Healthcare Risk Management

• Video on steps consumers can take to get involved in their own health care (flash player required)

Ask About Medicines

Consumer brochures:

• Ask About Your Diabetes Medicines
• Ask About Your Cancer Medicines
  

Association of periOperative Nurses

Consumer fact sheets:

• Who’s Who in the HospitalFinding Surgical Information You Can Trust
• Choosing a Doctor to Do Your Surgery
• What You Need to Know about Your Surgery
• What You Need to Know about Anesthesia
• Advice for Patients Concerned about Correct Site Surgery

Food and Drug Administration

Consumer fact sheets: (Spanish versions available)

• Drug Interactions: What You Should Know
• We Want You to Know about X-Rays: Get the Picture on Protection
• How to Give Medicine to Children
• Medicines and Older Adults
• Use Medicine Safely
• Buying Medicines and Medical Products Online
  

Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania

Consumer education videos:

• Medication Safety Practices (video)
• Partnering with your Physician (video)
• Taking an Active Role in your Healthcare (video)
  

Institute for Safe Medication Practices

Consumer fact sheets:

• Alerts and Tools for Consumers
• General Advice on Safe Medication Use
• Lessons to Be Learned from Past Errors
• Preventing Drug Errors in Children
  

Johns Hopkins Hospital Patient Safety Brochure and Video

Legacy Health System Patient Safety Brochure, It’s OK to Ask

Madison (WI) Patient Safety Collaborative

Consumer fact sheets and brochures:

• Using Your Medications Safely: A Guide to Prescription Health
• Pocket Card to Record Medications
• What You Can Do to Make Healthcare Safer: A Consumer Tip Sheet
• Pharmacy Safety & Service - What You Should Expect
• How You Can Help Prevent Infections
• The Role of the Patient Advocate
• Safety As You Go From Hospital to Home

Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors

Consumer brochures:

• Your Role in Safe Medication Use
• Actions to Help Protect Yourself
• Medication Safety Advice

My Personal Health Record

A project sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association

National Alliance for Caregiving

Consumer education resources:

• Hospital Discharge Planning: Helping Family Caregivers Through the Process
• A Family Caregiver's Guide to Hospital Discharge Planning (Spanish version available)

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

Consumer fact sheets:

• Falls and Hip Fractures Among Older Adults
• Check for Safety: A Home Fall Prevention Checklist for Older Adults

National Council on Patient Information and Education

Consumer fact sheets and other education resources: (some Spanish versions)

• Your Medicine: Play It Safe
• Get the Most from Your Medicine: Managing Side Effects
• Get the Answers (wallet card)
• Prescription for Safety (mirror sticker)
• Educate Before You Medicate
• Alcohol and Medicine: Ask Before You Mix
• Buying Prescription Medicines Online
• Taking the Mystery Out of Managing Your Medicines (video)
• Make Notes & Take Notes to Avoid Medication Errors

National Institute on Aging

Consumer fact sheets and brochures:

• Medicines: Use Them Safely
• Home Safety for People with Alzheimer's Disease
• Fractures and Falls
• Talking with Your Doctor
• Nursing Homes: Making the Right Choice
• Choosing a Doctor
• Making Your Printed Health Materials Senior Friendly

National Family Caregivers Association

Tip sheets and how-to guides:

• Speak Up
• Choosing a Nursing Home, A Caregiver's Guide
• Improving Doctor Caregiver Communications
• Checklists for Healthcare Encounters
• Medical Record Form to Keep Track of All Medications
• How to Communicate your Loved One's Symptoms in a Crisis
• Questions to ask your Healthcare Provider
• How to Communicate your Loved One's Needs about Well-being, Pain and More

National Patient Safety Agency

Consumer fact sheets:

• Top 10 tips for safer patients
• Inpatients - about staying in hospital
• Medicines - taking them safely
• Children - easing your worries
• Relatives - being involved

National Patient Safety Foundation

Ask Me 3™, three simple but essential questions that patients should ask their providers in every health care interaction

Sentara Healthcare Patient Safety Tips and Video

The Joint Commission

Consumer brochures:

• Help Prevent Errors in Your Care
• Help Avoid Mistakes in Your Surgery
• Information for Living Organ Donors
• Four Things You Can Do to Prevent Infection
• Help Avoid Mistakes with Your Medicines
• What You Should Know About Research Studies
• Help Prevent Medical Test Mistakes
• Know Your Rights

Virginians Improving Patient Care and Safety

Consumer fact sheets and brochures:

• Be Involved in Your Health Care: Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors (Spanish version available)
• Tips on preventing medical errors in related to medicines, hospital stays, surgery, home health, and other health services.

Washington State Medical Association

Consumer brochures:

• Help Us Help You! Your Role in Safe Care
• 6 Ways to a Safer Hospital Stay
• The More We Know, the More We Can Help
• Handwashing Keeps Everyone Healthy

Yale-New Haven Hospital: Tips for Staying Safe in the Hospital

American Hospital Association

This national organization represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. To help hospitals become more patient- and family-focused in their care practices, the AHA partnered with the Institute for Family-Centered Care to produce Strategies for Leadership: Patient- and Family Centered Care. The AHA also has produced a consumer fact sheet entitled Patient Care Partnership: Understanding Expectations, Rights and Responsibilities (available in multiple languages)

American Medical Association

With its Making Strides in Safety® program, the AMA is helping physicians help patients by encouraging physician leadership and involvement in improving patient care.

American Society for Healthcare Risk Management of the American Hospital Association

A professional society for health care risk management professionals and those responsible for the process of making and carrying out decisions that will promote high-quality care, maintain a safe environment, and preserve human and financial resources in health care organizations. This organization published the white paper Perspective on Disclosure of Unanticipated Outcome Information (2001).

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

A not-for-profit organization created to help lead the improvement of health care systems to increase continuously their quality and value. Sponsors initiatives intended to increase the role of patients and their families in health services.

National Patient Safety Agency

This independent body coordinates the safety improvement efforts of all those involved in healthcare in the UK. Public involvement in safety improvement is a major initiative for the organization.

National Patient Safety Foundation

The National Patient Safety Foundation serves as a resource for individuals and organizations committed to improving the safety of patients. One of the goals of the organization is to raise public awareness about health care safety.

National Resource Centre for Consumer Participation in Health

Australian organization that provides information on consumer feedback and participation methodologies and assists healthcare organizations in developing, implementing and evaluating consumer participation methods and models.

Partnering for Patient Empowerment through Community Awareness

This collaboration among patient safety advocates, health sciences librarians, health care institutions, and public libraries developed a toolkit that can be used by libraries to develop a patient safety partnership and awareness program in their community.

Partnership for Patient Safety

A patient-centered initiative focused on improving the safety of health care through consumer involvement and a systems approach.

Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy of the American Hospital Association

The Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy, a group affiliated with the American Hospital Association, seeks to advance healthcare consumer advocacy by supporting the role of professionals who represent and advocate for consumers across the healthcare continuum.

Whatcom County (Washington State) Pursuing Perfection Project

The Whatcom County Pursuing Perfection Project began with the goal of perfecting care to patients by transforming the healthcare system. Its aims were to demonstrate that improved access to care, increased patient self-management and satisfaction, and a decrease in medication errors associated with care at different points in the health care system were all realistic and achievable. It is now an international effort with over 13 participating communities, including sites in Denmark, Sweden and England as well as seven U.S. sites.

World Alliance for Patient Safety

The World Alliance for Patient Safety was formed by the World Health Organization to coordinate, disseminate and accelerate improvements in patient safety worldwide. Its Patients for Patient Safety initiative emphasizes the central role patients and consumers can play in efforts to improve the quality and safety of healthcare around the world.

The mission of the Institute for Family-Centered Care is to advance the understanding and practice of family-centered care. The Institute has developed several resources for health care professionals, including an assessment tool that can be used to evaluate the degree to which the curriculum, culture, and educational approach of a medical education program is likely to foster the competencies and attitudes necessary to practice family-centered care.

Planetree

The Planetree Model of health care is patient-centered rather than provider-focused, and is committed to improving medical care from the patient's perspective. It empowers patients and families through information and education, and encourages "healing partnerships" with caregivers.

Consumers Advancing Patient Safety

This consumer-led organization is a collective voice for individuals, families and healers who wish to prevent harm in healthcare encounters through partnership and collaboration. The group partners with healthcare professionals, researchers, hospitals and other healthcare service organizations, government agencies, accreditors, educators and others to promote the consumer perspective in patient safety.

Parents of Infants and Children with Kernicterus

This organization was developed in late 2000 by a group of mothers of children with severe cerebral palsy resulting from kernicterus, a condition caused by excessive bilirubin levels in newborns. PICK has helped to create awareness about kernicterus and strategies for preventing this avoidable patient injury.

Patients Association

UK consumer group that publishes Patient Voice magazine (back issues available online) and offers advice to consumers on how to create better patient-practitioner partnerships.

P.U.L.S.E. (Persons United Limiting Substandards and Errors in Healthcare)

National consumer group geared toward education and support. The web sites of state groups include some consumer-directed medical error prevention resources.

American Hospital Association

• Disclosure of Medical Errors: Demonstrated Strategy to Enhance Communication (video) (2001), produced by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management
• Essentials of Patient Education (2006), Susan Bastable

B & R Publishing

Publishes a patient journal that is designed for hospitalized patients and their families to record important medical information, physician names, medications, tests and procedures, etc. The journal is intended to guide the patient through a hospital stay, beginning with admittance, through the diagnostic and treatment regimen and finally discharge.

Joint Commission Resources

• Patients as Partners: How to Involve Patients and Families in Their Own Care (2006) by Meghan McGreevey

Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Sons

Books for health care professionals:

• Advancing Health Literacy: A Framework for Understanding and Action (2006) by Christina Zarcadoolas, Andrew Pleasant, and David S. Greer
• Cultural Competence in Health Care (2002), edited by Anne Rundle, Maria Carvalho, and Mary Robinson
• Through the Patient’s Eyes: Understanding and Promoting Patient-Centered Care (2002), edited by Margaret Gerteis, Susan Edgman-Levitan, Jennifer Daley, and Thomas L. Delbanco
• Putting Patients First: Designing and Practicing Patient-Centered Care (2003), edited by Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, and Patrick Charmel
• What Do I Say?: Communicating Intended or Unanticipated Outcomes in Obstetrics (2003), by James R. Woods and Fay A. Rozovsky

Savard Systems

The Savard System empowers patients to be their own best health advocates and provides tools for patients to become informed and involved patients. The System grew out of Dr. Savard’s three decades of experience as a medical practitioner, first as a nurse and then a general internist and primary care physician.

• How to Save Your Own Life (Warner Books, 2000). By: Marie Savard.
• The Savard Health Record A Six-Step System for Managing Your Healthcare (Time-Life Books, 2000). By: Marie Savard.

Miscellaneous books for health care consumers. Available from various book retailers.

• American Medical Association Guide to Talking to Your Doctor (John Wiley & Sons, 2001), by the American Medical Association
• Confessions of a Professional Hospital Patient: A Humorous First-Person Account of How to Survive a Hospital Stay and Escape with Your Life, Dignity and a Sense of Humor (1st Books Library, 2001), by Michael Weiss
• How to Get Out of the Hospital Alive: A Guide to Patient Power (John Wiley & Sons, 1998), by Sheldon Blau and Elaine Shimberg
• How to Survive Your Hospital Stay (Center Press, 1998), by Judy Burger Crane
• Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America’s Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes (RuggedLand Books,2004) by Robert Wachter and Kaveh Shojania.
• Making Informed Medical Decisions: Where to Look and How to Use What You Find (O’Reilly & Associates, 2000), by Lucy Thomas, Nancy Oster, and Darol Joseff
• So You’re Having a Heart Cath and Angioplasty (John Wiley & Sons, 2003), by Magnus Ohman, Gail Cox, Stephen Fort, and Victoria K. Folger
• The Intelligent Patient’s Guide to the Doctor-Patient Relationship: Learning How to Talk So Your Doctor Will Listen (Oxford University Press, 1998), by Barbara Korsch and Caroline Harding
  
  

[ Home | Products | Services | Free On-Line Resources | Upcoming Workshops ]
[ Web Links | Contact Us | Search ]