Patient Safety Awareness Week 2023

AHRQ, together with our colleagues from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Health Services Resources Administration, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and other dedicated patient safety advocates, are observing Patient Safety Awareness Week.

AHRQ Director Robert Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A., encourages stakeholders to take action through this observance. "This Patient Safety Awareness Week, let's recommit to improving safety by creating and promoting a safety culture that engages our workforce, enlists patients and families in the care we provide, and uses evidence to improve our performance. Healthcare is not safe until we are all safe." Find out more about AHRQ's focus on diagnostic safety in the Director's AHRQ Views blog post.

AHRQ remains committed to ensuring that care is made as safe as possible for patients in every setting. But as patients and healthcare workers continue to interact with health systems fractured by the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, Long COVID, and other forces, AHRQ is committed to rebuilding a system that’s safe for everyone and is built around whole-person health.

Join us March 12-18, 2023, as we highlight the exciting work that’s advancing patient and workforce safety and learn about the important work that lies ahead.

The National Action Alliance to Advance Patient 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 Safety.

Learn more about the work of the National Action Alliance, and sign up for email updates. 

HRSA Webinar: Federal Partners Highlight Patient Safety Activities

Join HRSA and partners at key Federal agencies at an interactive session on Wednesday, March 15, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET as they update their work in patient safety.

Select here for registration.

Patient Safety Funding Opportunities

As AHRQ works to help repair our fractured healthcare system, it is investing in research in a number of timely areas, including improving diagnostic safety, reducing healthcare-associated infections, and understanding how climate change impacts healthcare.

• Understanding and Improving Diagnostic Safety in Ambulatory Care: Incidence and Contributing Factors.
• AHRQ Improving Diagnostic Safety in Ambulatory Care: Strategies and Preventions.
• Special Emphasis Notice: AHRQ Announces Interest in Research on Climate Change and Healthcare.
• Special Emphasis Notice: AHRQ Announces Interest in Healthcare Associated Infections and Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Research.

Check out these ongoing patient safety-related funding opportunities:

• Large Research Projects for Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections (R01).
• Making Health Care Safer in Ambulatory Care Settings and Long-term Care Facilities (R18).
• Large Research Projects for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB) (R01).
• Large Health Services Research Demonstration and Dissemination Projects for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB) (R18).

FY2024 AHRQ Budget

• Budget Estimates for Appropriations Committees, Fiscal Year 2024.
• AHRQ Views blog post: With New Funds Proposed for 2024, AHRQ is Poised to Tackle Critical Healthcare Challenges.

New Releases

New Chartbook on Patient Safety, part of a family of documents and tools that support AHRQ’s National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report.

Keep Up to Date on AHRQ’s Patient Safety Work

• Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to learn more about AHRQ's proven tools and resources for improving diagnostic safety, preventing healthcare-associated infections, and more.
• Subscribe to AHRQ's Patient Safety email update or AHRQ News Now to get the latest information on patient safety.
• Tell us how you’ve used AHRQ’s tools and resources to make care safer. Read our library of Impact Case Studies for inspiration on how to use AHRQ’s tools and resources.
• Check out the new PSNet Curated Libraries.

Additional Resources on Patient and Workforce Safety

Engaging patients and families in their healthcare can help prioritize their concerns and get the most out of interactions between providers, patients and families. Check out AHRQ’s Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety and the Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families.

AHRQ’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture^™ ask healthcare providers and other staff in hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes, community pharmacies and ambulatory surgery centers about their organization’s support for patient safety.

Attendees at AHRQ’s Summit and Roundtable on Research Priorities for Patient Safety Improvement considered persistent challenges facing the field, including the challenges of COVID-19, and offered insights on research priorities.