Patient Safety Awareness Week

Patient Safety Awareness Week occurs annually in March

Patient Safety Awareness Week, an annual recognition event that occurs in March, is intended to encourage everyone to learn more about health care safety.

During this week, IHI seeks to advance important discussions locally and globally, and inspire action to improve the safety of the health care system — for patients and the workforce.

Patient Safety Awareness Week serves as a dedicated time and platform for growing awareness about patient safety and recognizing the work already being done.

Why a Focus on Safety?

Although there has been real progress made in patient safety over the past two decades, current estimates cite medical harm as a leading cause of death worldwide.

The World Health Organization estimates that 134 million adverse events occur each year due to unsafe care in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, resulting in some 2.6 million deaths. Additionally, some 40 percent of patients experience harm in ambulatory and primary care settings with an estimated 80 percent of these harms being preventable, according to WHO.

Some studies suggest that as many as 250,000 to 400,000 deaths occur in the United States each year as a result of errors or preventable harm. Not every case of harm results in death, yet they can cause long-term impact on the patient's physical health, emotional health, financial well-being, or family relationships.

Preventing harm in health care settings is a public health concern. Everyone interacts with the health care system at some point in life. And everyone has a role to play in advancing safe health care.

IHI works with partners around the world to improve the safety of health care for patients, caregivers, and the health care workforce.

Learn more about IHI's work to advance patient and workforce safety.

Ideas for Recognizing Patient Safety Awareness Week

Examples to Inspire Others

US Examples

Centrastate Medical Center, New Jersey: Displayed banners at the main hospital entrances. The team also created trivia activities to test staff knowledge of patient safety, with opportunities for staff to be entered into drawings for gift cards. They ended the week with a complimentary ice cream treat for staff.

Community Medical Center, Montana: Planned a safety display highlighting the five patient incident posters displayed on the organization's website. They were displayed with safety behaviors used in the institution and a list of Safety Champions for the past year. The team also provided a suggestion box for ways to make the hospital safer, and had a room occupied by "Miss Mayhem," with a prize for a person who identified all of the safety issues in the room. Staff signed a huge Pledge Poster as they entered the display. The poster was rotated among departments as a reminder to staff about patient safety.

Deaconess Health System, Illinois: Planned several activities, including a bulletin board competition through which departments could show their "patient safety destination" (hand washing, fall reduction, etc.). They also gave "Speak Up" awards, chosen through peer nominations and awarded to staff who speak up to advocate and keep their patients' safe. A life-sized cut-out of their patient safety mascot, Safety Sam, conveyed patient safety messages throughout the week. The team planned to share the results of the competitions and the creative efforts at the organization's Safety Ambassador Committee meeting, Patient Safety Committee, Leadership Meeting, and on the hospital's internal webpage.

Dell Seton Medical Center, Texas: In collaboration with UT Austin Dell Medical School, hosted a series of interactive talks from local experts to highlight safety culture. Among the topics were health equity, patient experience, wellness, costs of care, and an interprofessional happy hour.

Kootenai Health, Idaho: Recognized staff that were involved in a "Good Catch" with Swedish Fish and Goldfish prizes. The team also hosted a viewing party for the IHI free Virtual Learning Hour and a screening of a patient safety documentary, and held a Safety Fair and poster contest. To promote the event, images of staff and quotes from staff and patients were placed on cafe tables.

Livingston Hospital and Healthcare Services, Kentucky: Convened a team to view the Patient Safety Awareness Week free webcast and created word-search puzzles with health care quality and safety words and phrases.

Maui Memorial Medical Center, Hawaii: Their team incorporated storytelling in an interactive presentation to staff.

Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York: The Division of Quality & Safety presented “Patient Safety Lightning Rounds” during Patient Safety Awareness Week. This fast-paced, interactive series of roundtable discussions was led by subject matter experts on institutional safety initiatives, and open to all staff.

Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS), Minnesota: The organization’s belief is that sharing stories and experiences helps all stakeholders understand the impact of preventable errors and unexpected experiences in the delivery of care. The organization invited members to create patient story galleries in their facilities using the innovative storyboards MAPS co-created with five patient partners to illustrate their challenging health care journeys.

Olympic Medical Center, Washington: Convened staff to listen to the free IHI PSAW webinar, and offered information via posters in the cafeteria and emails to highlight PSAW and the hospital’s safety initiatives. They also released a special edition of their “Safety Minute — Guardians of Safety” video focused on Patient Safety Awareness Week.

Residential Home Health and Hospice, Michigan: One staff member wrote an article on safety for the organization’s website.

Scott Air Force Base, Illinois: Medical staff organized a patient safety poster contest during Patient Safety Awareness Week.

Seattle Children's Hospital, Washington: Hosted a full week of activities. On Monday, senior leaders thanked staff for their commitment to safety and handed out swag/stickers at the front entrances of our hospital. On Tuesday they held Quality and Safety Poster Walkarounds (highlighting staff quality and safety improvement work) and provided a booth for patients and families to learn more about what patient safety means for them. On Wednesday the team held a screening of the documentary, “To Err Is Human.” Thursday was the annual Safety Coach/Safety Leader Celebratory Luncheon, and a second screening of the documentary was held on Friday. The organization featured personal statement posters and a large poster for folks to pledge their commitment to safety.

South County Health, Rhode Island: This organization put a special focus on education about patient identification.

Southwest General, Ohio: This organization sent daily emails to staff with safety tips.

St. Christopher Hospital for Children, Pennsylvania: Scheduled handwashing demonstrations that show what’s missed and activities to boost patient engagement.

Tufts Medical Center and The Floating Hospital for Children, Massachusetts: Patient Safety Awareness Week coincided with the Safety Culture Survey at these organizations. Patients and staff members took the IHI PSAW pledge and signed a “Safety Starts with Me” poster, which was displayed in the hospital's main atrium. In addition, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety staff members offered information to increase patient safety awareness and encourage reporting of safety events as part of the “Quantros/Good Catch” initiative, and held educational sessions open for staff on process mapping and fishbone diagram.

International Examples

Altababa Advanced Health Solutions, Khartoum: The organization held an event for all health care providers to learn about patient safety, best practices, high-reliability practices, and examples of patient safety practices.

Do Not Harm, Armenia: This health care-related NGO based in Yerevan created a series of videos about patient safety to be shared on their website and on social media.

Frenchay Brain Injury Unit, England: The organization held a series of themed awareness days to demonstrate what the organization does to keep patients safe. Themes included clinical observations, falls prevention, swallowing awareness, sepsis/DVT prevention, and infection control.

Guam Regional Medical City, Guam: Held a themed event for each day of Patient Safety Awareness Week, from poster presentations on fall prevention to a "room of horrors" and awards for "Good Catch" submissions.

King Fahad Hospital Hofuf, Saudi Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia: Quality and Patient Safety staff publicly shared stories and lessons learned from five incidents reported during the second quarter via their reporting system. The incidents ranged from inappropriate patient identification to medication errors. The incidents were analyzed by the Quality and Patient Safety Team and the relevant departments to prevent recurrence. By making them public, they hoped others could learn and benefit.

Mafarq Hospital, Abu Dhabi: Teams conducted a collage competition with the theme “Why Safety Matters to You.” They also held a Quality and Patient Safety Symposium and offered quizzes and games for staff.

Red de Salud UC CHRISTUS, Chile: Marked its sixth Patient Safety Awareness Week with activities like leadership rounds, challenging teams to develop ideas about patient safety and share them on a public whiteboard and a photography competition, "Safety in Images." The staff contributed to an annual patient safety survey and held an International Conference of Patient Safety and Quality. Activities were aimed at engaging clinical and not clinical staff alike.

Rotunda Hospital, Ireland: This stand-alone maternity hospital held a series of initiatives aimed at staff and patients to promote patient safety. They included a display of patient safety projects that have made a real impact on patient care, and a patient information booth informing patients of what the hospital does to keep them safe and advising them of what they can do to help staff to keep them safe. The finale was short presentations from multidisciplinary staff comprising patient safety themes.

Saudi Patient Safety Center, Saudi Arabia: Activities included Twitter posts discussing patient safety initiatives such as medication safety, reporting, measuring safety culture, patient empowerment, and innovation. Collaborating hospitals were asked to highlight national initiatives in patient safety.

Tabba Heart Institute Karachi, Pakistan: The organization conducted a culture of safety survey during Patient Safety Awareness Week, and presented a webinar and a discussion on patient feedback.

US Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan: Numerous activities included a “room of horrors” for staff to identify safety risks; an ice cream social for staff to ask and answer patient safety questions; and a “Good Catch” award ceremony for the night staff.