WIHI: Engaging Patients in Safety — Live from London and the International Forum on Quality and Safety

Date: April 18, 2013

Featuring:

• Susan Hrisos, Senior Research Associate, Institute of Health & Society, Newcastle University (UK)
• Jane O’Hara, MSc, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Yorkshire Quality & Safety Research Group, Bradford Institute for Health Research
• Martin Hatlie, JD, CEO, Project Patient Care; President, Partnership for Patient Safety; Co-founder, Consumers Advancing Patient Safety

It’s easy enough to say patients need to be engaged in all levels of their care, including being aware of best practices and anything that could inadvertently result in harm. But what does this actually look like day-to-day, especially in the high-stakes, busy environment of today’s highly complex hospitals? And what good does it do for patients and families to notice and speak up about things if there’s no one on the receiving end trained to respect and act upon the information? 

With at least a decade’s worth of ideas and initiatives on patient engagement with patient safety as a backdrop, new research on what is and isn’t working in the UK — with broad application to the US and elsewhere — is in the spotlight on this WIHI. WIHI listeners got a first peek at new analysis presented at the 2013 IHI-BMJ International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare by leading researchers at Newcastle University and the Bradford Institute for Health Research in England, Susan Hrisos and Jane O’Hara. Martin Hatlie, one of the leading voices and experts on patient engagement in the US, comments on the research and describes new models for effective patient/provider collaboration around safety that are emerging in the US. 

Patient engagement in patient safety is here to stay. The only question is how this vital part of improvement can be more effective, and what skills patients and providers alike need to work together for the same goal.