Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families
Additional Resources
Environmental Scan
The environmental scan report describes approaches to engage patients and families in primary care settings and how engagement leads to patient safety.
Case Studies
Four case studies of exemplar practices from across the country were developed:
- Open Notes is a tool that gives patients access to their medical records so they can read encounter notes. Patients can access their notes online through the patient portal or in hard copy from a printout.
- Partnering To Improve Safety, Quality, and Patient Experience. A patient and family advisory committee is a group of patients, family members, office staff, and primary care providers working together to improve safety, quality, and patient experience.
- Team-Based Care is a transformative method of delivering care that emphasizes teamwork. In addition to the patient and family, the care team may include a doctor or nurse practitioner, registered nurse, care team coordinator, scheduler, and even a pharmacist or social worker.
- Shared Decision Making is a way to work with your doctor to make decisions about your healthcare. It helps you and your family better understand your care and treatment options, so you can select the care plan that is best for you.
Resources for Advanced Practices
The environmental scan revealed many strategies that could improve patient safety in primary care settings by engaging patients and families but may require significant technical assistance to adopt. As part of this Guide, we reference these strategies as those that advanced practices, which are practices that have already adopted the strategies detailed in this Guide, may consider adopting to further their patient safety improvement journey.
Download the Advanced Practices Resources Guide [PDF, 865.8 KB].
Frequently Asked Questions
A frequently asked questions web page has been created to aid primary care practices and practice champions during their implementation. The questions were developed based on the experiences of the practices that field tested the original materials.
Original Materials
This Guide and its materials have been developed over a period of 2 years, during which an initial version of the interventions was released to the public from October 2016 to March 2017. These original intervention materials were field tested initially with 15 practices (12 completed the field test) from across the United States. Feedback from the field test was used to improve the materials to enhance the adoption of the strategies included in this Guide. Access the original materials.