Patient Safety Awareness Week is March 2-8, 2008

Hospitals, healthcare organizations and patient groups across the globe will join the National Patient Safety Foundation in celebration of Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 2-8, 2008. The theme of the week, Patient Safety: A Road Taken Together, emphasizes a collective effort for safer healthcare through partnership among providers, patients, families and communities. Founded in 2002 by NPSF, this week is intended to raise public awareness about the work being done to improve patient safety and the importance of effective partnering to these improvement efforts. Community engagement provides a key focus for the week's efforts.

During Patient Safety Awareness Week 2008, NPSF will join forces with the World Alliance for Patient Safety, Patients for Patient Safety program to focus on the issue of health literacy and effective communication as key factors for improving patient safety. NPSF's Partnership for Clear Health Communication will provide its Ask Me 3 program for dissemination through Patients for Patient Safety. This program, a health literacy initiative designed to assist with communication between patients and providers through a focus on three basic questions: What is My Main Problem? What Do I Need to Do About It and Why is It Important for Me to Do This? and What are the Risks? -- has been translated into the six official languages of the World Health Organization (WHO) and will be disseminated worldwide through the Patients for Patient Safety Champions network as they work in partnership with these healthcare systems.

"Patient Safety Awareness Week is a call to action that promotes patient safety and the importance of partnership in improving safe outcomes," said Diane C. Pinakiewicz, NPSF president. "Effective communication between providers and patients is key to the type of partnership necessary for this work and we are pleased to be joined by the World Alliance for Patient Safety, Patients for Patient Safety program as we focus on communication and community engagement this year."

NPSF's more than 400 Stand Up for Patient Safety(TM) healthcare facilities will spearhead the celebration in the United States as they reach out to their communities to engage them in the work they are doing in patient safety. NPSF provides its members with programs for the week that include tools for community education and engagement.

For more information about National Patient Safety Awareness Week tools and resources, visit http://www.npsf.org/hp/psaw/

Source: National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF)