Resources by National Action Plan Foundational Area
Contents
Culture, Leadership, and Governance
AHRQ Patient Safety Net (PSNet) Primer: Safety Culture
This resource provides an overview of patient safety culture and covers key concepts.
AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS®) Tools
These survey tools ask healthcare providers and other staff in hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes, community pharmacies, and ambulatory surgery centers about their organizational culture's support for patient safety. Available supporting resources include data entry and analysis tools, improvement resource lists, impact case studies on SOPS surveys, and an action planning tool.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Training Opportunity: Safety Culture in Healthcare Settings
This training from the CDC's National institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) focuses on competencies for healthcare workers to increase knowledge about strategies to address work-related hazards and promote a safe and healthful work environment.
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) SAFER Guides
These 9 guides, organized into 3 groups—foundational, infrastructure, and clinical process guides—offer recommendations for addressing and optimizing electronic health record safety. Each guide includes a self-assessment to help organizations determine their degree of conformance with recommended practices. For each recommended practice, the guide provides examples organizational leaders can use to develop their processes and standards for improving EHR system safety.
Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Patient Safety Assessment Tool
Organizations can use this tool to assist patient safety and quality managers and staff in conducting an objective assessment of their patient safety program. The tool is organized by six program elements and includes a list of questions and rationale for assessment.
Patient and Family Engagement
AHRQ CAHPS Ambulatory Care Improvement Guide
This comprehensive resource is for health plans, medical groups, and other providers seeking to improve their performance in the domains of patient experience measured by the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys of ambulatory care.
AHRQ CANDOR (Communication and Optimal Resolution) Toolkit
This resource provides healthcare organizations with the tools to respond immediately when a patient is harmed and to promote candid, empathetic communication and timely resolution for patients and caregivers.
AHRQ Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families
This resource offers four interventions and case studies designed to improve patient safety by meaningfully engaging patients and families in their care.
AHRQ Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety
This guide helps hospitals work as partners with patients and families to improve quality and safety. It includes an implementation handbook and tools for patients, families, and clinicians.
AHRQ Improving Healthcare Safety by Engaging Patients and Families
This resource summarizes 53 AHRQ-funded projects to improve patient safety by supporting increased patient and family engagement.
AHRQ TeamSTEPPS® 3.0 (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety)
This evidence-based resource provides exercises, videos, and other resources relevant to four fundamentals of teamwork: leadership, situation monitoring, mutual support, and communication. TeamSTEPPS is applicable to many clinical settings (long-term care, office practices, etc.) and team participants (patients, support staff, administrators, etc.).
AHRQ Toolkit for Engaging Patients to Improve Diagnostic Safety
This resource contains two strategies, Be The Expert On You and 60 Seconds To Improve Diagnostic Safety, that enhance communication and information sharing within the patient-provider encounter to improve diagnostic safety. Each strategy contains practical materials to support adoption within office-based practices.
CMS Office of Minority Health: Health Equity Technical Assistance Program
This program offers help to organizations seeking to improve equitable care for patients, including personalized coaching, resources for improving care for minority populations, data collection and analysis, and assistance with improving communications. For more information, email HealthEquityTA@cms.hhs.gov.
AHRQ Implementation Opportunity: TeamSTEPPS® 3.0 Trainings
From March through November 2024, AHRQ will offer virtual and limited in-person TeamSTEPPS 3.0 trainings led by experienced facilitators at no charge to participating healthcare teams and individuals. These trainings will prepare participants to improve team communication, manage challenges more collaboratively, and successfully implement TeamSTEPPS to improve patient care at their organization. Those interested should email TeamSTEPPStraining@ahrq.hhs.gov. A training team member will be in touch to help you and your team identify your organization's goals and needs, complete pretraining activities, and schedule a training session based on your availability.
Workforce Safety
Addressing Health Worker Burnout: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Building a Thriving Health Workforce
This Advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General calls attention to the significant issue of health worker burnout, including recommending changes to the systems, structures, and cultures that shape health care and outlining steps that different stakeholders can take together to address health worker burnout. In addition to the downloadable Advisory, the webpage presents ways to take action and key takeaways from the Advisory for ease of review.
AHRQ Burnout in Primary Care: Assessing and Addressing It in Your Practice
This resource, designed to support primary care practice administrators in learning about and addressing staff burnout, includes information about burnout; tools and strategies to help practices address burnout and improve staff well-being; and links to additional resources.
AHRQ PSNet Primer: Burnout
This article provides an overview of burnout in healthcare and covers key definitions and concepts. Authors discuss current efforts to prevent and reduce burnout, including a guide for implementing organizational strategies to prevent and reduce burnout.
AHRQ SOPS® Hospital Workplace Safety Supplemental Item Set
The SOPS® Workplace Safety Supplemental Item Set for hospitals is used with the core SOPS® Hospital Survey to help hospitals assess the extent to which their organization's culture supports workplace safety for providers and staff.
AHRQ SOPS® Nursing Home Workplace Safety Supplemental Item Set
The SOPS® Workplace Safety Supplemental Item Set for nursing homes is used with the core SOPS® Nursing Home Survey to help nursing homes assess the extent to which their organization's culture supports workplace safety for staff.
CDC Impact Wellbeing Guide
This guide for executive leaders is based on a systems approach to build trust between leaders and healthcare workers. To improve the well-being of all healthcare workers, executive leaders can use the guide to move through six evidence-informed actions that include tools and resources.
CDC Slip, Trip, and Fall Prevention for Healthcare Workers
This workbook helps healthcare workers recognize and reduce risks for slips, trips, and falls through preventing, reducing, or eliminating hazards. The workbook also offers support for implementing a slip, trip, and falls prevention program in a healthcare facility.
CDC Stop Sticks Campaign
Organizations can use this communication intervention from the CDC’s National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Healthcare and Social Assistance Sector Council to raise awareness about risks of workplace exposure to bloodborne pathogens. The site includes planning, implementation and evaluation strategies that organizations can use to raise awareness and decrease needlestick injuries.
CDC Total Worker Health Approaches
This set of resources from the National institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) can help organizations create or expand their cultures of safety, health, and well-being. The site includes multiple tools and resources for planning, assessing, and evaluating healthy workplace culture, as well as guides for identifying areas of improvement, making the business case for total worker health, and learning how to prioritize approaches.
ONC Provider Burden Reduction
This report focuses on reducing the regulatory and administrative burden created by the use of health information technology (IT), such as electronic health records (EHRs). The report contains strategies and recommendations to address challenges with clinical documentation, health IT usability and the user experience, EHR reporting, and public health reporting.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) eTool for Hospitals
Hospitals can use these standalone, interactive web-based training tools to educate staff on a variety of occupational safety and health topics. Modules are organized by setting (such as emergency department and surgical suite) and by hospital department (such as central sterile supply and housekeeping).
OSHA How Safe Is Your Hospital for Workers?
This self-assessment tool can help hospital leaders determine what questions to ask their safety, risk, and human resources managers to better understand how safe the workplace is and how it measures up against other hospitals.
OSHA Preventing Workplace Violence: A Road Map for Healthcare Facilities
This road map describes the five core components of a workplace violence prevention program and provides real-world examples of how healthcare facilities have put workplace violence policies and procedures into practice. Healthcare employers and employees can use this resource to establish a workplace violence prevention program or to strengthen an existing program.
OSHA Safe Patient Handling Programs: Effectiveness and Cost Savings
This resource presents hospital administrators a business case for investing in safe patient handling programs, policies, and equipment, based on findings from hospitals across the U.S. that have successfully implemented these programs. In addition, it provides a set of steps administrators can take to establish a business case for their facility.
OSHA Safe Patient Handling Information and Implementation Guidance
This resource supports understanding of and action around safe patient handling to prevent healthcare worker injury and promote patient safety in long-term care, acute care, and home health settings, as well as for workers in other settings where patient handling is performed (e.g., physical therapy, radiology). Guidelines, how-to guides, training modules, and implementation guidance are organized by the healthcare setting for which they are tailored.
OSHA Safe Patient Handling: A Self-Assessment
Patient handling is a common and preventable source of healthcare employee injuries. Organizations can use this brief questionnaire to examine the number and nature of patient handling injuries in their hospital, identify what they are already doing well, and identify opportunities for improvement.
ONC Provider Burden Reduction
This report focuses on reducing the regulatory and administrative burden created by the use of health information technology (IT), such as electronic health records (EHRs). The report contains strategies and recommendations to address challenges with clinical documentation, health IT usability and the user experience, EHR reporting, and public health reporting.
The U.S. Surgeon General's Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being Framework and Resources
In support of the Office of the Surgeon General’s efforts to promote workplace mental health and well-being across industries and roles, the U.S. Surgeon General provides its Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being, which is based on five essential practices around which workplaces can create a plan to implement the practices to help strengthen workplace well being. A resource library and key downloads are also available, including reflection questions for leaders and examples of organizations that are applying the Framework in their workplace.
AHRQ Funding Opportunity: New AHRQ R01: Systems-Based Approaches to Improve Patient Safety by Improving Healthcare Worker Safety and Well-Being
AHRQ is seeking applications for funding support up to $2M over 4 years that propose approaches to improve the interrelated systems and processes embedded in healthcare delivery in order to support healthcare worker safety and well-being in various health settings.
Learning Systems
AHRQ Calibrate Dx: A Resource To Improve Diagnostic Decisions
This self-evaluation tool helps clinicians improve their diagnostic decision making. It provides structured exercises and tools to help clinicians learn from reviewing their clinical practice.
AHRQ Measure Dx: A Resource To Identify, Analyze, and Learn From Diagnostic Safety Events
This resource helps clinicians, quality, safety and risk management professionals, and other health system leaders detect, analyze, and learn from diagnostic safety events.
AHRQ Quality Indicators
AHRQ’s quality indicators are standardized, evidence-based measures of healthcare quality that can be used to measure and track clinical performance and outcomes. They include measures for prevention, inpatient hospital care, patient safety, pediatric hospital care, and emergency department care.
CMS QualityNet
QualityNet offers healthcare providers and others resources and data reporting tools to support quality improvement efforts. Information about relevant CMS quality programs is available for multiple settings, including inpatient and outpatient hospitals, rural emergency hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, cancer hospitals, end-stage renal disease facilities, and inpatient psychiatric facilities.
FDA MedSun Medical Product Safety Network
Through this program, clinical sites report adverse medical device events, and the FDA works collaboratively with users to identify, understand, and solve problems with the use of medical devices.
AHRQ Funding Opportunity: New LHS E-StaR Program
Through a joint initiative funded over a 5-year period, AHRQ and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) are supporting scientist training and research centers to create new models of learning health systems that generate evidence to optimize care as quickly, broadly, and equitably as possible.
