We want to know: patient comfort speaking up about breakdowns in care and patient experience. | AHRQ Patient Safety Network

We want to know: patient comfort speaking up about breakdowns in care and patient experience. | AHRQ Patient Safety Network

• Study
 
• Published September 2018

We want to know: patient comfort speaking up about breakdowns in care and patient experience.

Fisher KA, Smith KM, Gallagher TH, Huang JC, Borton JC, Mazor KM. BMJ Qual Saf. 2018 Sep 29; [Epub ahead of print].

Patients are frequently encouraged to engage with health care providers as partners in safety by speaking up and sharing their concerns. Although research has shown that patients and family members sometimes identify safety issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, they may not always be willing to speak up. In this cross-sectional study involving eight hospitals, researchers used postdischarge patient survey data to understand patients' comfort in voicing concerns related to their care. Almost 50% of the 10,212 patients who responded to the survey reported experiencing a problem during hospitalization, and 30% of those patients did not always feel comfortable sharing their concerns. An Annual Perspective summarized approaches to engaging patients and caregivers in safety efforts.

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