Engaging Patients as Safety Partners: A Guide for Reducing Errors and Improving Satisfaction

Patrice L. Spath, Editor

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324 pages, softcover, 6" x 9"
AHA Order Number: 181203
ISBN: 978-1-55648-353-0
AHA Member Price: $66.00
Nonmember Price: $74.00

Engaging Patients as Safety Partners aids health care professionals in understanding how patients and families can partner with practitioners to reduce medical errors and how practitioners can mitigate the effects of mistakes when they do occur. This book also provides valuable advice on how to surmount legal concerns associated with patient/practitioner collaboration.

Engaging Patients as Safety Partners builds on and updates an earlier book edited by Patrice Spath—Partnering with Patients to Reduce Medical Errors. This new book provides proven solid ground for health care organizations following the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goal requiring organizations to encourage patients' active involvement in their own care as a patient safety strategy. The book builds upon research that indicates that there are fewer adverse events and harmful errors if caregivers create a supportive and transparent environment that encourages patient involvement.

Engaging Patients as Safety Partners provides solutions to counter contentious areas surrounding patient safety improvement such as:

• Overcoming the "culture of individual accountability" that can inhibit staff collaboration with patients and family members
• Explaining how the classic medical model has suppressed the voice of health care consumers and why changes in the traditional patient-physician relationship are needed to improve patient safety
• Introducing strategies and techniques to teach patients how to stay safe as they navigate the health care system
• Offering recommendations on how to overcome the barrier of low health literacy among patients
• Describing the legal, cultural, and regulatory issues affecting information sharing and disclosure, and offering suggestions for overcoming the perceived legal barriers
• Illustrating how patient-centered care and transparency can mend potentially adversarial relationships between patients and providers

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
About the Editor
About the Contributors
Foreword by Robert M. Wachter, MD
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Safety from the Patient's Point of View
Patrice L. Spath
Chapter 2. The Patient's Role in Safety: A Physician's Perspective
Joel Mattison, MD
Chapter 3. Creating Opportunities for Patient Involvement
Paula S. Swain and Patrice L. Spath
Chapter 4. Engaging Patients in Safety: Barriers and Solutions
Michelle H. Pelling
Chapter 5. Integrating Health Literacy into Patient Safety Partnerships
Cezanne Garcia and Cynthia Brach
Chapter 6. Enabling Patient Involvement without Increasing Liability Risks
James W. Saxton and Maggie M. Finkelstein
Chapter 7. Patient Involvement in System Failure Analysis: Engaging the Overlooked Partner
Theresa M. Zimmerman and Geraldine Amori
Chapter 8. A Call to Action: The Leader's Role in Patient Safety
Thomas C. Royer, MD
Chapter 9. Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital: Putting the Patient in Patient Safety
Kay Beauregard and Steven Winokur, MD
Resource List
Index

Reviewer Comments

This is a thoughtful read and a very helpful guide for providers and for patients and family members—if we are serious about safe and high quality care for all, and narrowing this information and acceptance gap.
Dan Ford, Vice President, Furst Group, Patient safety advocate as a consumer, and as a health care consultant

...a treasure trove of convincing information and tools we should all apply. I serve on the Board of the Washington (D.C.) organ procurement organization. When we added a donor family member and a transplant recipient to the Board a profound and permanent enrichment followed. The rest of healthcare should do the same.
William Minogue, MD, Executive Director, Maryland Patient Safety Center

Patrice Spath has done it again—breaking new ground—by engaging patients directly in the national safety conversation. She gives patients a new voice—one of hope and confidence about the future. Kudos on a job well done.
David B. Nash MD, MBA, Chair of Health Policy, Jefferson Medical College

To my mind, explorations of [patient engagement] need to be rigorous; thoughtful in their depiction of best practices; guided when possible by evidence; and cognizant of the subtleties, nuances, and risks. Engaging Patients as Safety Partners ... navigates these challenging waters with great skill and purpose.
from the Forward by Robert M. Wachter, MD, author of Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes.

...underscores the key point that patients and their families must be full partners...and provides dozens of pragmatic tools, references and resources for successfully engaging them.
Joanne Disch, PhD, RN, FAAN, Clinical Professor & Director, KJ Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Minneapolis