Improving Patient Safety Culture through Teamwork and Communication: TeamSTEPPS

Health care teams that communicate effectively reduce the potential for human error, resulting in enhanced patient safety and improved clinical performance. TeamSTEPPS—Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety—capitalizes on the U.S. Department of Defense's expertise in medical and nonmedical team performance and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's research on patient safety and health care quality. TeamSTEPPS is designed to improve patient safety through effective communication and teamwork skills.

This HPOE guide outlines the TeamSTEPPS framework, describes teamwork tools and includes examples and case studies illustrating how hospitals and care systems are using TeamSTEPPS to improve patient safety and quality.

Visit AHRQ's collection of TeamSTEPPS resources.