Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families
Choosing the Right Intervention for Your Practice
Selecting the right information for your practice’s needs is an important first step in implementation process. The information below describes how each strategy may help your practice achieve its improvement goals.
Be Prepared To Be Engaged
This strategy provides patients and family members with a card (the Be Prepared card) where, before their appointment, they can write down what they would like to discuss during the office visit: their questions, their concerns, their health goals. It encourages patients to prepare for their appointment, to speak up, and to ask questions.
Select Be Prepared if you want to ensure that your patients ask you any questions they have and communicate their concerns and health goals to you. This strategy can help make office visits more efficient and reduce followup calls.
Create a Safe Medicine List Together
This strategy uses the “brown bag medicine review” method to engage patients to create a complete and accurate medication list.
Select Create a Safe Medicine List Together if you have many patients with multiple medications or you have committed to helping patients with medication management. This strategy can help you conduct medication reconciliation based on a complete and accurate list of medications, meet national patient safety goals, and improve patient outcomes.
Teach-Back
ThIs strategy helps you validate that you have explained medical information clearly and that patients and family members understand what you have told them.
Select Teach-Back if:you want to ensure that your patients understand what you tell them, including instructions such as how to take care of themselves at home, how to take their medications, how to use devices, and what additional procedures or care they need. This strategy can help make sure your patients leave your office knowing what they need to know and do.
Warm Handoff Plus
ThIs strategy is a handoff between two members of the healthcare team conducted in person and in front of the patient.
Select Warm Handoff Plus if you have handoffs within your practice but they are currently done via the electronic health record or a paper note. This strategy can help improve communication between team members and with the patient and family.
