National Patient Safety Foundation

The National Patient Safety Foundation is an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

National Patient Safety Foundation

Founded	1997
Location	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Area served	United States, international
Focus	Patient safety, quality, health care
Method	Education, outreach, research
Website	npsf.org

Programs

Stand Up For Patient Safety
This program provides a way for organizations to participate in the patient safety movement both within their environment and across their communities. Stand Up for Patient Safety provides information on safety implementation strategies, along with tools to facilitate incorporation into the organization’s culture and enhance existing safety and quality programs. Stand Up for Patient Safety provides program materials and resources for healthcare stakeholders. A teamwork approach is encouraged by providing coordinated implementation materials tailored to specific audiences – administration, trustees, clinical staff, patients and families, and communities. The need for partnership between healthcare providers and patients and families is emphasized by materials specifically targeted at engaging patients as active participants in the healthcare process.

The program includes access to a web-based forum to discuss approaches and strategies, pose questions, and exchange information on best practices. The Stand Up for Patient Safety program is available for both inpatient and physician practice/ambulatory settings.

Annual Patient Safety Congress
The NPSF Patient Safety Congress brings together key healthcare stakeholders committed to patient safety and is designed to share learnings, present tools and solutions, and arm attendees with the implementation strategies and knowledge they need to foster change. This event attracts healthcare executives, board members, administrators, clinical leaders, patient safety officers and risk managers, quality improvement directors, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, solutions providers, government leaders and policy professionals, educators, researchers, and the leading experts in the patient safety field.

Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation
The Lucian Leape Institute is charged with defining strategic paths and calls to action for the field of patient safety. The Institute convenes two topic-specific roundtables annually on transformative concepts for safety in health care. The resultant reports and recommendations are designed to provide guidance for the field and challenge the healthcare system to address issues critical to making the system safer.

Corporate Council
Leading healthcare solutions providers take part in the National Patient Safety Foundation’s Corporate Council to enhance their understanding of the issue of patient safety and the challenges faced by their customers. The Corporate Council provides a forum for these industry leaders to work alongside NPSF Board members, healthcare providers, hospital executives, and patients and their families to facilitate the adoption of solutions to improve patient safety.

Patient Safety Awareness Week
This annual program, held in early March each year, is a national education and awareness-building campaign for improving patient safety at the local level. Hospitals and healthcare organizations across the country plan events to promote patient safety, utilizing tools made available by NPSF. Activities are centered on educating patients on how to become involved in their own health care, as well as working with hospitals to build partnerships with their patient community.

Research Grants Program
The National Patient Safety Foundation’s Research Grants Program seeks to stimulate new, innovative projects directed toward enhancing patient safety in the United States. The program’s objective is to promote studies leading to the prevention of human errors, system errors, patient injuries, and the consequences of such adverse events in the healthcare setting. Since 1998, the National Patient Safety Foundation research grant program has supported 32 research projects with nearly $3.2 million in funding.^{[citation needed]} A majority of these grants have been awarded to interdisciplinary teams to support research on diverse topics in areas such as medication errors, organizational design, and disclosure or communication issues.

Partnership for Clear Health Communication at the National Patient Safety Foundation
The Partnership for Clear Health Communication (PCHC) is dedicated to improving health literacy. Low health literacy is associated with poor health outcomes, including increased hospitalization rates, fewer preventive screenings, and higher rates of disease and mortality. PCHC is educating patients and providers about health literacy, developing and applying practical solutions to improve patient-provider communication, and serving as the voice for health literacy and health communication.

Patient and Family Program The work of the Patient and Family Program is critical to the NPSF mission and programs, helping to ensure the presence of the patient and family perspective and the voice of those harmed by adverse events. The program has delivered work such as The Universal Patient Compact: Principles for Partnership, a statement of principles established by NPSF that defines "the elements of true and effective partnering between patients and providers", and Patients and Families in Patient Safety: Nothing About Me, Without Me, a call to action for healthcare organizations at all levels to involve patients and families in the care process. The program also offers Community Engagement from the Patient and Family Perspective, a day-long session at the NPSF Annual Patient Safety Congress that provides perspectives and ideas to support engaging communities in patient safety work.

Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship The Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship provides healthcare professionals across the country an opportunity to learn and integrate innovative strategies within their own organizations. These changes translate into ensuring superior patient care and saving lives.^{[citation needed]} The HRET Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship is sponsored by the Health Research & Educational Trust, National Patient Safety Foundation, American Hospital Association, Health Forum, American Organization of Nurse Executives, American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, Society of Hospital Medicine, and the American Hospital Association Quality Center.

Resources and Publications

Patient Safety ListServ
Providing a forum for constructive conversation on issues of patient safety, the Patient Safety ListServ presently serves a community of more than 2500 individuals from around the world, including patients and families, researchers, providers, administrators and those in the boardroom.

Patient and Family Resource Guide
NPSF has compiled an extensive list of resources to help patients and family members navigate through the health system and find answers to their questions.

Ask Me 3 Health Literacy Materials
Ask Me 3 is an educational program designed to improve communication between patients and providers through focus on three basic questions. Numerous information sheets, as well as brochures and posters, are available. Ask Me 3 is a program of the Partnership for Clear Health Communication at the National Patient Safety Foundation.

Journal of Patient Safety
This peer-reviewed, quarterly publication focuses on patient safety and error reduction in healthcare settings and is the official journal of the National Patient Safety Foundation.

Current Awareness Literature Alert
The NPSF Information Resource Center monitors the landscape of patient safety by identifying articles of interest to the patient safety community. This twice-monthly publication pinpoints items from a wide array of publications.

Focus on Patient Safety Newsletter
This online quarterly publication provides coverage of key patient safety topics and features patient safety research, improvement initiatives, and personal stories, as well as news and announcements from the National Patient Safety Foundation.

External links

• http://npsf.org/