CAPS launched a new initiative titled Add Patients, Change Everything! in July 2008.  CAPS sought local partners to convene groups of proactive consumers who care about patient safety and other stakeholders who wish to work with patients for workshops to be held in three US cities/metro areas or regions in the United States in 2008-09.  The initiative aims to develop sustainable community-based partnerships that advance patient safety in America and integrate with a growing international movement to engage consumers in preventing harm from medical error. Learn More

 

CAPS Toolkit – Taking Charge of your Healthcare: Your Path to
Being an Empowered Patient

Hospital discharge is a time during which patients and families are at their most vulnerable. There is so much information they need to know, just when they may be least able to absorb, remember and act on it. It is vital for members of the healthcare team to help patients leave the hospital with confidence, giving them the tools and information they need to make a smooth transition to their next destination. This toolkit, Taking Charge of your Healthcare: Your Path to Being an Empowered Patient, provides you with these tools.

Improving the quality and safety of health care in the United States is one of the most significant challenges facing the American health care system today. A critical step on the path towards safer, higher quality care is encouraging and facilitating patient and family engagement to improve health care experiences, care delivery, and outcomes.  Learn More

Since 1999, more than 25 States have passed legislation or created regulations related to hospital reporting of adverse events.  Current patient safety event reporting systems are aimed at obtaining information from healthcare providers.  However, patients and their family members are in a unique position to view the continuum of care, which enables them to identify gaps in care that may have contributed to adverse events.  The US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recognizes that consumers can be an important source of information about patient safety.  In September 2008, AHRQ awarded a two-year contract to RTI International and CAPS to develop recommendations for ideal reporting systems that consumers would use to report their experiences with patient safety events.  Learn More

Patients for Patient Safety (PFPS), one of six original action areas of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Alliance for Patient Safety, is designed to ensure that the perspective of patients, families, consumers and citizens is a central reference point in shaping the important work of the World Alliance.  Building on a foundation laid by CAPS and the WHO’s PFPS program launched in London in December 2005, CAPS is working to help build a global network of consumer patient safety champions that are prepared to partner with WHO to improve the safety of care around the world. Learn More


CAPS Toolkit – Building the Future for Patient Safety: Developing Consumer Champions –
A Workshop and Resource Guide

This guide describes the Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) workshop process and methodology used to develop future-oriented consumers as partners and champions of patient safety.
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This project was funded under contract number HHS233200600704P from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of AHRQ or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.