A new article in British Medical Journal Quality & Safety reviews five areas of health care that are essential to improving patient safety, which the Institute For Healthcare Improvement/National Patient Safety Foundation (IHI/NPSF) and the Lucian Leape Institute (LLI) first identified in 2009. The five areas include medical education reform, care integration, joy and meaning in work and workforce safety, transparency, and patient and family engagement.
Patient experience data are being used more widely and effectively to include mandates for use from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the National Committee for Quality Assurance and other payers. Although there has been great progress, challenges remain, especially in the integration of better communication with clinical workflows. Evidence indicates that in addition to collecting patients’ feedback, the inclusion of patients as equal partners in their care supports improvement in both patient experience of care and clinical outcomes.
Learn more about WSHA’s Person/Patient and Family Engagement (PFE) work at WSHA’s upcoming Patient and Family Engagement Metric #1, #2, #3 Boot Camp September 12 in Seattle. Participants will explore how to create, improve and sustain engagement by involving patients and family members as part of the care team during admissions, shift huddles and bedside reporting. The boot camp will also cover how to set up individual staff or teams for success as an accountable leader for PFE. (Tamara Glover)
