AHRQ News Now: AHRQ Supports Patient Safety Awareness Week With Variety of Activities

AHRQ News Now: special Patient Safety Awareness Week issue

AHRQ Supports Patient Safety Awareness Week With Variety of Activities

AHRQ is collaborating with the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), which will merge with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in May, to celebrate Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 12-18) through a series of activities recognizing the importance of keeping patients safe in all health care settings:

• An AHRQ Views blog posted on Monday, “AHRQ and NPSF: #UnitedforPatientSafety,” outlines our shared patient safety improvement goals, as well as the growing call to tackle safety challenges as a public health concern.
• Today, from 1 to 2 p.m. ET, AHRQ will host a Twitter chat, “Patient Safety: What Patients Want (and Need) to Know.” To join, use #psaw17chat.
• Also today, AHRQ released a toolkit to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and other healthcare-associated infections in long-term care settings. Learn more about the toolkit and a new AHRQ Views blog below.
• Also today, AHRQ posted a new grantee profile of Mark Graber, M.D., who’s credited for his groundbreaking work in diagnostic safety. Learn more about Dr. Graber below.
• On March 15, a new AHRQ Views blog, “Health IT’s Role in Patient Safety, Patient-centered Care, and Learning Health Systems,” will underscore health information technology’s role in accelerating safer care.
• On March 16, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET, AHRQ and HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration will collaborate on “Promoting a Culture of Safety,” an overview of AHRQ’s patient safety initiatives. Join online or call 877-917-7126 (participant code: 3463268).
• On March 17, AHRQ will post a new AHRQ grantee profile of Brian Jack, M.D., a Boston University School of Medicine professor who has spent more than a decade working to reduce patients’ risks of unnecessary hospital readmissions. Access AHRQ grantee profiles.

For more information this week and beyond about AHRQ’s patient safety tools and resources, follow the agency on Twitter @AHRQNews, Facebook @AHRQ.gov and LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company-beta/61817.