Patient Safety Awareness Week 2024
As we celebrate Patient Safety Awareness Week 2024, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) also marks its 35th anniversary. This milestone, under the banner "Today's Research, Tomorrow's Healthcare," highlights our dedication to transforming healthcare through safety, equity and quality research.
AHRQ Director Robert Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A., reflects on this journey, emphasizing, "Our vision at AHRQ is to shape the future of healthcare, ensuring better patient outcomes through research and innovation."
This year, AHRQ features the launch of TeamSTEPPS 3.0, the latest in teamwork optimization; the Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS®) assessment tools; and Making Healthcare Safer IV, a compilation of patient safety practices. Additionally, the Agency spotlights efforts by the National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety and introduces new funding opportunities for research on diagnostic safety and combating healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance.
Join AHRQ in advancing patient safety and celebrating 35 years of healthcare improvement.
AHRQ Commemorates 35 Years as an Independent Agency
Since its elevation to full agency status in 1989, AHRQ has established a tradition of supporting groundbreaking health services research to make healthcare more accessible, equitable, affordable, safer and of higher quality. The anniversary’s theme, “Today’s Research, Tomorrow’s Healthcare,” underscores AHRQ’s dedication to improving patient outcomes now and in the future. Read more about AHRQ’s lead role in advancing health services research in an AHRQ Views blog post by Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A.
TeamSTEPPS 3.0 Pocket Guide and Training Recruitment
The TeamSTEPPS Pocket Guide has been updated to the TeamSTEPPS 3.0 curriculum in time for Patient Safety Awareness Week 2024. TeamSTEPPS is an evidence-based framework developed by AHRQ to optimize team performance across the healthcare delivery system.
In addition to the updated curriculum, AHRQ is offering virtual and limited in-person TeamSTEPPS 3.0 and TeamSTEPPS Diagnosis Improvement trainings led by experienced facilitators at no charge to participating healthcare teams and individuals. Learn more here.
Surveys on Patient Safety Culture Program
AHRQ's Surveys on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS) Program has valuable resources to help healthcare organizations assess how their organizational culture promotes patient safety. Supplemental item sets can be added to the SOPS Hospital and Nursing Home Surveys to assess workplace safety for providers and staff, including workplace aggression and burnout. Other supplemental item sets assess health information technology and patient safety in hospitals, diagnostic safety in medical offices, and value and efficiency in hospitals and medical offices. Learn more here.
Making Healthcare Safer IV
AHRQ’s Making Healthcare Safer IV series of rapid evidence reports consolidates information for healthcare providers, health system administrators, researchers, and government agencies about practices that can improve patient safety across the healthcare system—from hospitals to primary care practices, long-term care facilities, and other healthcare settings. Learn more here.
The National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety
The National Action Alliance was established in late 2022 by AHRQ on behalf of HHS and in partnership with other Federal agencies and private stakeholders committed to advancing patient and workforce safety. AHRQ, HHS, and patient safety stakeholders recognize that health systems share a long-standing commitment to advancing patient and workforce safety. That commitment has been demonstrated by shared support for National Action Plan to Advance Patient and Workforce Safety.
Learn more about the work of the National Action Alliance, and sign up for email updates.
Diagnostic Excellence
New! AHRQ’s latest issue brief, Current State of Diagnostic Safety: Implications for Research, Practice, and Policy, identifies major themes related to the current state of diagnostic safety and highlights key gaps in knowledge. Access all the issue briefs here.
