Multiple Settings
Tools for Health Care Organizations
Calibrate Dx is a self-evaluation tool for clinicians to improve their diagnostic decision making. This resource provides structured exercises and tools to help clinicians learn from reviewing their clinical practice. Anyone whose scope of practice includes medical diagnosis can use Calibrate Dx.
Choosing a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) describes the benefits of working with a PSO. PSOs can help providers develop successful approaches to improving quality and reducing adverse outcomes, and make it possible to have Federal confidentiality and privilege protections apply to certain information (defined as "patient safety work product") developed when a provider works with a PSO. The brochure also discusses questions providers may want to consider when choosing a PSO.
Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) is a suite of surveys originally developed by AHRQ and designed to measure patients' experiences of their care, including communication with doctors and nurses, responsiveness of staff, and other indicators of safe, high-quality care. The surveys are developed from the patient's perspective on what's important to measure. They are used by Federal agencies and other organizations for value-based purchasing programs, public reporting, accreditation, quality improvement, and health services research. The surveys are available for different settings and health plans. Some CAHPS surveys can be customized with supplemental item sets, including, for example, patient-centered medical homes; health literacy; interpreter services; health information technology; and children with chronic conditions.
Surveys include:
Settings:
- Clinician and group practices
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/cg - Emergency departments
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/ed-cahps - Home healthcare
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/home - Hospices (hospice facility, hospital, home)
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/hospice - Hospitals
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/hospital - Hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgery centers
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/oas - In-center hemodialysis facilities
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/ich - Nursing homes (long-stay, short-stay, family member surveys)
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/nh - Health Plans: Commercial, Medicaid, Medicare
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/hp - Experience of Care and Health Outcomes
(ECHO®— for behavioral health)
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/echo
Specialized Surveys:
- Cancer care—inpatient and outpatient treatment for drug therapy, radiation therapy, and surgical therapy
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/cancer - Home and community-based services programs
Web: ahrq.gov/cahps/surveys-guidance/hcbs
Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP) Toolkit includes customizable training tools that build the capacity to address safety issues by combining clinical best practices, the science of safety, and attention to safety culture. Created for clinicians by clinicians, the toolkit includes training tools to make care safer by improving the foundation of how clinical team members work together. Each module includes teaching tools and resources to support change at the unit level and includes facilitator notes that take you step-by-step through the module, presentation slides, tools, and videos.
Settings and problems addressed include:
- Ambulatory surgery centers
Web: ahrq.gov/haiambsurgery - Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI)
Web: ahrq.gov/CLABSItools - Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI)—hospitals
Web: ahrq.gov/CAUTItools - CAUTI—long-term care facilities
Web: ahrq.gov/cautiltctools - Mechanically ventilated patients
Web: ahrq.gov/haimvp - Perinatal safety
Web: ahrq.gov/perinatalsafety - Safe surgery
Web: ahrq.gov/haisurgery
Health Care Facility Design Safety Risk Assessment Toolkit helps healthcare design teams proactively identify and mitigate built environment conditions that may impact patient and work safety in the hospital and other healthcare environments. The toolkit addresses approaches to desgin tat target six areas of safety: infections, falls, medication errors, security, injuries of behavioral health, and patient handling.
Making Healthcare Safer III: A Critical Analysis of Existing and Emerging Patient Safety Practices reviews 47 practices that target patient safety improvements in hospitals, primary care practices, long-term care facilities, and other healthcare settings.
Measure Dx: A Resource To Identify, Analyze, and Learn From Diagnostic Safety Events is a resource to help healthcare organizations detect, analyze, and learn from diagnostic safety events. Measure Dx can be used by any healthcare organization interested in promoting diagnostic excellence and reducing harm from diagnostic safety events. Potential users include clinicians, quality and safety professionals, risk management professionals, health system leaders, and clinical managers.
Project ECHO is a collaborative model of medical education and care management that helps clinicians provide expert-level care to patients wherever they live.
Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) is a suite of staff-administered surveys that help health care organizations assess how their staff perceive various aspects of safety culture in the following settings:
- Hospitals
Web: ahrq.gov/hospsurvey - Medical offices
Web: ahrq.gov/sops/medicalofficesurvey/ - Nursing homes
Web: ahrq.gov/nursinghsurvey - Community pharmacies
Web: ahrq.gov/sops-compharmacy - Ambulatory surgery centers
Web: ahrq.gov/sops-asc
Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety 2.0 (TeamSTEPPS®) is a core curriculum initially developed for use in hospitals and adapted to other settings. It is a customizable "train the trainer" program plus specialized tools to reduce risks to patient safety by training clinicians in teamwork and communication skills. Materials include a leader's guide for trainers, a pocket guide of important concepts for trainees (also available as an app through the Apple app store and Google Play store), and a multimedia guide featuring training videos to illustrate various concepts. Online modules also are available. Additional modules address:
- Diagnosis improvement
Web: ahrq.gov/teamstepps/diagnosis-improvement/index.html - Long-term care
Web: ahrq.gov/teamstepps/longtermcare - Office-based care
Web: ahrq.gov/teamstepps/officebasedcare - Patients with limited English proficiency
Web: ahrq.gov/teamsteppslep - Rapid response systems guide
Web: ahrq.gov/teamstepps/rrs