Engaging Patients For Patient Safety

Implementing safety practices in healthcare saves lives and improves the quality of care: it is therefore vital to apply good clinical practices, such as the WHO surgical checklist, to adopt the most appropriate measures for the prevention of assistance-related risks, and to identify the potential ones using tools such as reporting & learning systems. The culture of safety in the care environment and of human factors influencing it should be developed from the beginning of medical studies and in the first years of professional practice, in order to have the maximum impact on clinicians' and nurses' behavior. Medical errors tend to vary with the level of proficiency and experience, and this must be taken into account in adverse events prevention. Human factors assume a decisive importance in resilient organizations, and an understanding of risk control and containment is fundamental for all medical and surgical specialties. This open access book offers recommendations and examples of how to improve patient safety by changing practices, introducing organizational and technological innovations, and creating effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care systems, in order to spread the quality and patient safety culture among the new generation of healthcare professionals, and is intended for residents and young professionals in different clinical specialties.

Building on the revolutionary Institute of Medicine reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Keeping Patients Safe lays out guidelines for improving patient safety by changing nurses' working conditions and demands. Licensed nurses and unlicensed nursing assistants are critical participants in our national effort to protect patients from health care errors. The nature of the activities nurses typically perform â€" monitoring patients, educating home caretakers, performing treatments, and rescuing patients who are in crisis â€" provides an indispensable resource in detecting and remedying error-producing defects in the U.S. health care system. During the past two decades, substantial changes have been made in the organization and delivery of health care â€" and consequently in the job description and work environment of nurses. As patients are increasingly cared for as outpatients, nurses in hospitals and nursing homes deal with greater severity of illness. Problems in management practices, employee deployment, work and workspace design, and the basic safety culture of health care organizations place patients at further risk. This newest edition in the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Quality Chasm series discusses the key aspects of the work environment for nurses and reviews the potential improvements in working conditions that are likely to have an impact on patient safety.

This evidence-based guide provides the first comprehensive overview of patient engagement and participation in healthcare. It has been written for all those who want to understand the various ways in which patient and public engagement can contribute to better health outcomes. Angela Coulter explains the theories, models and policies at the heart of patient involvement as well as giving extensive practical examples to demonstrate the reality of involving patients. The book includes an examination of patients’ roles in respect of: Improving care processes Building health literacy Selecting treatments Strengthening self-care Ensuring safer care Participating in research Training professionals Shaping services Clearly written by a leading author in the field and well illustrated with data, examples and evidence, the book includes practical descriptions of real patient engagement, together with critical review and suggestions to guide future developments. This guide also brings together an extensive body of international evidence, making it the most current and original text on the market. Engaging Patients in Healthcare is essential reading for students and professionals working and studying in public health, health care management, health services and beyond. "This book is the roadmap we need to guide the creation of the healthcare system we’ve all dreamed about – one that truly taps the power of patient and professional wisdom." Susan Edgman-Levitan, PA, Executive Director, Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA "This book provides the building blocks from which healthcare professionals can try to engage people more, from consultation based practices, such as shared decision making and improved self management, to deeper changes in shaping services and training professionals." British Medical Journal, 2011 "Policy makers and practitioners will benefit from Angela Coulter's analysis of the challenges of securing effective engagement and the ideas she puts forward for overcoming these challenges." Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King's Fund, London, UK "Angela Coulter has managed to de-mystify the concepts of patient engagement in health care in a readable, balanced, thought-provoking primer. A "must read" for students, educators, practitioners, managers, and policy makers needing a primer or update." Annette O’Connor, Emeritus Professor University of Ottawa, Canada "Committed doyenne, Coulter writes superbly about patients as the greatest untapped resource in healthcare. At a time when health services face so many challenges across the globe, there are solutions here that need urgent attention." Professor Glyn Elwyn BA MB BCh MSc FRCGP PhDDirector of Research, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Clinical Epidemiology IRG, Cardiff University, UK "While politicians pay increasing obeisance to the notion of 'patient-centred care' patients often experience a service built around the needs of healthcare organisations and professionals. The challenge is to translate the often woolly rhetoric of “no decision about me without me” into practical steps that improve the quality of care, and keep it affordable as cost pressures mushroom. Those who are serious about taking on this challenge could do no better than study Dr Coulter’s crisp and cogent overview of the theory, evidence and practice of patient engagement. " Jeremy Taylor, Chief Executive, National Voices

Patient-oriented approaches to healthcare management have been brought to the fore in recent years, yet this book underlines how even further change is needed in order to fully mobilise the experiential knowledge of patients, and ultimately improve our healthcare systems. With contributions from scholars and patients across the globe, this collection brings together a comprehensive overview of major achievements in patient engagement, analysing political, organizational and clinical contexts. By understanding the concept of care partnership, the authors explore how this patient revolution could transform, improve and innovate the ways in which care services are organized and delivered. Looking closely at the role of new technologies, this timely book will undoubtedly be of use to patients, managers and professionals within the healthcare industry, as well as those researching health policy and organization.

Medical residents in hospitals are often required to be on duty for long hours. In 2003 the organization overseeing graduate medical education adopted common program requirements to restrict resident workweeks, including limits to an average of 80 hours over 4 weeks and the longest consecutive period of work to 30 hours in order to protect patients and residents from unsafe conditions resulting from excessive fatigue. Resident Duty Hours provides a timely examination of how those requirements were implemented and their impact on safety, education, and the training institutions. An in-depth review of the evidence on sleep and human performance indicated a need to increase opportunities for sleep during residency training to prevent acute and chronic sleep deprivation and minimize the risk of fatigue-related errors. In addition to recommending opportunities for on-duty sleep during long duty periods and breaks for sleep of appropriate lengths between work periods, the committee also recommends enhancements of supervision, appropriate workload, and changes in the work environment to improve conditions for safety and learning. All residents, medical educators, those involved with academic training institutions, specialty societies, professional groups, and consumer/patient safety organizations will find this book useful to advocate for an improved culture of safety.

This unique and engaging open access title provides a compelling and ground-breaking account of the patient safety movement in the United States, told from the perspective of one of its most prominent leaders, and arguably the movement’s founder, Lucian L. Leape, MD. Covering the growth of the field from the late 1980s to 2015, Dr. Leape details the developments, actors, organizations, research, and policy-making activities that marked the evolution and major advances of patient safety in this time span. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, this book not only comprehensively details how and why human and systems errors too often occur in the process of providing health care, it also promotes an in-depth understanding of the principles and practices of patient safety, including how they were influenced by today’s modern safety sciences and systems theory and design. Indeed, the book emphasizes how the growing awareness of systems-design thinking and the self-education and commitment to improving patient safety, by not only Dr. Leape but a wide range of other clinicians and health executives from both the private and public sectors, all converged to drive forward the patient safety movement in the US. Making Healthcare Safe is divided into four parts: I. In the Beginning describes the research and theory that defined patient safety and the early initiatives to enhance it. II. Institutional Responses tells the stories of the efforts of the major organizations that began to apply the new concepts and make patient safety a reality. Most of these stories have not been previously told, so this account becomes their histories as well. III. Getting to Work provides in-depth analyses of four key issues that cut across disciplinary lines impacting patient safety which required special attention. IV. Creating a Culture of Safety looks to the future, marshalling the best thinking about what it will take to achieve the safe care we all deserve. Captivatingly written with an “insider’s” tone and a major contribution to the clinical literature, this title will be of immense value to health care professionals, to students in a range of academic disciplines, to medical trainees, to health administrators, to policymakers and even to lay readers with an interest in patient safety and in the critical quest to create safe care.

When you are ready to implement measures to improve patient safety, this is the book to consult. Charles Vincent, one of the world's pioneers in patient safety, discusses each and every aspect clearly and compellingly. He reviews the evidence of risks and harms to patients, and he provides practical guidance on implementing safer practices in health care. The second edition puts greater emphasis on this practical side. Examples of team based initiatives show how patient safety can be improved by changing practices, both cultural and technological, throughout whole organisations. Not only does this benefit patients; it also impacts positively on health care delivery, with consequent savings in the economy. Patient Safety has been praised as a gateway to understanding the subject. This second edition is more than that – it is a revelation of the pervading influence of health care errors, and a guide to how these can be overcome. "... The beauty of this book is that it describes the complexity of patient safety in a simple coherent way and captures the breadth of issues that encompass this fascinating field. The author provides numerous ways in which the reader can take this subject further with links to the international world of patient safety and evidence based research... One of the most difficult aspects of patient safety is that of implementation of safer practices and sustained change. Charles Vincent, through this book, provides all who read it clear examples to help with these challenges" From a review in Hospital Medicine by Dr Suzette Woodward, Director of Patient Safety. Access 'Essentials of Patient Safety – Free Online Introduction': www.wiley.com/go/vincent/patientsafety/essentials