National Patient Safety Awareness Week
What Your Organization Can Do to Spread the Word

By now, many of us are familiar with the statistic released in the landmark 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report: that as many as 98,000 deaths in the United States each year result from medical errors. Although a greater focus on patient safety has been an obvious trend since the release of that report, there is still plenty more that can be done.

Next month, many healthcare organizations will honor National Patient Safety Awareness Week, from March 4 – 10. This national education and awareness-building campaign, sponsored by the National Patient Safety Foundation, focuses on improving patient safety at the local level. Hospitals and healthcare organizations across the country are encouraged to plan events to promote patient safety within their own organizations. Educational activities are centered on educating patients on how to become involved in their own healthcare, as well as working with hospitals to build partnerships with their patient community.

If you’re looking for ways to spread the word about patient safety in your organization, consider these recommendations by the National Patient Safety Foundation:

Media and Marketing

• Tape a radio show on your local station about patient safety.
• Sponsor a resolution to declare March 4-March 10, 2007 National Patient Safety Awareness Week.
• Include a reminder about Patient Safety Awareness Week and safety tips with medical bills and paychecks.
• Distribute press releases announcing your activities.
• Create public service announcements about communication, dialogue and partnering between patients and healthcare providers. (To help get the message out, enlist major local radio and TV stations, along with university and local community print media to provide in-kind support.)
• Submit editorials, first-person stories and op-ed pieces for local papers and newsletters.

• Offer a suggestion box for patients and families.
• Hold an open house, brown bag lunch or round-table discussion for patients and families with a patient safety topic of discussion.
• Conduct surveys for the public to express their concerns about healthcare safety.
• Provide a journal or message board for patients to write down their stories and/or concerns.

Increase Patient Safety in Your Hospital or Organization

• Announce award programs and incentives.
• Provide a drop-box for suggestions from staff to improve patient safety.
• Conduct a survey of staff about their safety concerns and recommendations.
• Hold an information session about patient safety.
• Hold a round table discussion with staff to discuss safety concerns.
• Include patient safety in medical professional school curricula.
• Bring in a patient/family speaker to speak to staff about an experience with a medical error and about prevention.

• Distribute literature in the lobby.
• Distribute medication safety pamphlets.
• Host a panel presentation and discussion.
• Invite speakers to come and speak about healthcare issues.
• Show educational films.
• Have a pharmacist available to answer questions in the lobby.
• Invite patients to bring their medication for review by a pharmacist.
• Empower patients by providing information on what they can do if they experience an error.

• Distribute pillboxes with the days of the week, imprinted with a safety message and the name of the organization.
• Distribute business cards or tent cards that read “Time to Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet of Expired Medications.”
• Distribute wallet cards for patients to write down and carry with them all medications and phone numbers for providers and pharmacies.

Reach Out to the Community

• Introduce departments and services within your hospital to the patient and family population (such as ethics committees, social work, ombudsman programs, etc.).
• Use your volunteers, civic groups and community groups to help pass out literature, write editorials and post signs and posters throughout the community.
• Encourage educational and motivational speakers to go into businesses or civic meetings (senior groups, PTAs, religious institutions) and speak about healthcare safety, or line them up for your own events.
• Hold an open house for civic groups and local residents to meet the staff, visit emergency rooms and see your facility BEFORE they need it.
• Include patient safety curricula in high schools, emphasizing “how to be an aware patient.”

For more ideas on spreading the word about patient safety—including activities for patients and families—visit the National Patient Safety Foundation website at http://www.npsf.org