Patient Safety Initiative Resources
The AHA has worked with hospitals and health systems to share tools that help build a culture of patient safety, adopt best practices around infection prevention and other critical safety topics, and share learnings so that hospitals can learn from each other’s experiences in improving safety.
Just Released: Hospitals Improving Performance on Key Patient Safety Measures
A new report from AHA using data analyzed by Vizient finds that hospital performance on key patient safety and quality measures is better in the first quarter of 2024 than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leading for Safety: AHA Quest for Quality Series
The AHA Patient Safety Initiative presents Leading for Safety, a virtual series featuring insights from past Quest for Quality awardees. This series explores how health care leaders can drive safer, higher-quality care by fostering a culture of safety and innovation. Combining the prestigious Quest for Quality Prize with the AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative, Leading for Safety provides practical strategies for executive leadership in advancing patient safety.
Patient Safety Leadership Perspectives
Reenergize our Focus
Joanne Conroy, M.D., CEO and President of Dartmouth Health and AHA Board Chair highlights the commitment to constantly improving patient care. The AHA Patient Safety Initiative helps the field consider how improvements in care can be applied across the country.
Reenergize our Focus
We Want to Learn From Each Other
Working Together Sends a Strong Message
We Strive to Provide the Best Care
Quality and Safety are Core
With Health Care It’s Always Been Quality and Safety
- Patient Safety Member Story | Springfield Memorial Hospital, Springfield, Illinois
- Patient Safety Member Story | WellSpan, York, Pennsylvania
- Patient Safety Member Story | University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio
- Patient Safety Member Story | MaineGeneral, Augusta, Maine
- Applying Human-Centered Design to Address Common Infection Prevention and Control Challenges
- AHA Quality Collective Report | Highlighting shifts in post-COVID-19 health care quality, the member report emphasizes clinical strengths and priorities.
- Trustees Can Help Lead the Way to Age-Friendly Health Systems | The U.S. is becoming a graying society with over 57 million Americans aged 65+. While we celebrate longer lifespans, we need to step up in caregiving. Explor this article by Terry Fulmer, Ph.D., President of The John A. Hartford Foundation, on how AHA Patient Safety Initiative connects these needs with board engagement to ensure equitable, age-friendly care.
- AHA infection control and prevention resources
- Patient Safety Awareness Week
- Project Firstline, which offers hospitals and health systems the tools and resources needed to engage all stakeholders on infection control – from bedside nurses to administrators to environmental staff – to identify areas of improvement, commit to an action plan, monitor practices, and adjust as needed.
- Team Training, which is designed to improve teamwork skills and practices that are essential to delivering safe, coordinated care.
- Living Learning Network, is the innovation engine that drives the Patient Safety Initiative. The LLN is not just a platform; it's a vibrant online community where ideas spark, conversations ignite and knowledge fuels the journey towards patient safety excellence.
- Age Friendly Health Systems, which is a multidisciplinary project aimed at addressing the particular needs and concerns, including safety concerns, in caring for older patients.
- Palliative Care strategies to help patients living with serious illnesses not only manage their symptoms and pain, but also set health goals, stay on track to meet those goals and live their best lives.
- STRIVE (States Targeting Reduction in Infections via Engagement), which was a national initiative funded by the CDC and aimed at improving infection control practices and strengthening health care-associated infection prevention stakeholder relationships at the local level.
- AHA Quest for Quality prize, which honors hospitals and health systems that have made extraordinary improvements in the delivery of safe, high-quality care and seeks to share their strategies with other hospitals that seek to improve quality.
- Hospitals Against Violence (HAV), an AHA initiative to share examples and best practices with the field, with a particular emphasis on workplace violence prevention.
- AHRQ communication and optimal resolution (CANDOR) toolkit, which provides strategies and training for clinicians to use in discussing safety events with patients and families.