BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) will focus Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 8–14, on the need for more effective measures of safety and safer transitions for patients when they go from one care setting to another. The two are connected by the fact that existing safety measures don’t capture a patient’s entire health journey across the continuum of care, and patients are at their most vulnerable when transitioning from hospital to home or to a post-acute setting, or even between departments within the same hospital.
Patient Safety Measurement
The need for better ways to understand how safe care is or could be has taken on global significance because health systems in multiple countries, including the US, are often grappling with similar challenges. This has given rise to an interest in developing measures that are shared across geographic boundaries.
On Tuesday, March 10, from 12 Noon to 1:00 PM Eastern Time, IHI is hosting a complimentary Virtual Learning Hour, Principles for Improving Patient Safety Measurement. The program will provide an overview of the current state of patient safety measurement as well as discuss new principles that were developed at a recent expert meeting convened by IHI and the Salzburg Global Seminar.
Featured speakers for the program are Don Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at IHI and former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Helen Haskell, MA, President of Mothers Against Medical Error and Consumers Advancing Patient Safety; and Niek Klazinga, MD, PhD, Strategic Lead of the Health Care Quality and Outcomes Programme at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and convener of its Working Party on Health Care Quality and Outcomes.
Safety in Care Transitions
On Thursday, March 12, from 12 Noon to 1:00 PM Eastern Time, IHI (@TheIHI) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (@AHRQNews) will co-host a Twitter Chat focusing on effective ways to improve safety during transitions in care, when patients move from one setting to another or to home. All are invited to participate by using the event hashtag #PSAW20.
Patient Safety Awareness Week is an annual event that shines a light on the inherent risks involved in health care and the need for safety to be a core value of health care organizations. “We seek to emphasize that every stakeholder can help prevent events that harm patients and the workforce,” said Patricia McGaffigan, RN, MS, CPPS, Vice President, Safety Programs, at IHI. That message will be amplified in May, she added, when IHI and the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety release a national action plan to address harm in health care.
IHI encourages those taking part in Patient Safety Awareness Week to share their activities on social media and on the event website, ihi.org/psaw, where they can also take a pledge for patient safety, get ideas for engaging staff and patients, and download themed materials to use in marking the week.
About the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent not-for-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. For more than 25 years, IHI has used improvement science to advance and sustain better outcomes in health and health systems across the world. IHI brings awareness of safety and quality to millions, catalyzes learning and the systematic improvement of care, develops solutions to previously intractable challenges, and mobilizes health systems, communities, regions, and nations to reduce harm and deaths. IHI collaborates with a growing community to spark bold, inventive ways to improve the health of individuals and populations. IHI generates optimism, harvests fresh ideas, and supports anyone, anywhere who wants to profoundly change health and health care for the better. Learn more at ihi.org.
