ADD PATIENTS...CHANGE EVERYTHING

Consumers Advancing Patient Safety launched a new initiative in July 2008 titled Add Patients, Change Everything! Through an application process CAPS sought local partners who demonstrated a commitment to patient safety to host community-based consumer engagement workshops.  The workshops will be held in Denver February 26-28, Baltimore March 5-7, and Phoenix March 12-13, 2009.

The “Add Patients, Change Everything!” 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. Our goals are to actualize an authentically patient-centered approach to the delivery of healthcare at the community level and enrich public discussion on patient safety by involving those most affected – consumers. Guided by an Appreciative Inquiry methodology, the workshops draw from actual consumer experiences with the healthcare system to engage all stakeholders and produce actionable plans for advancing safe and effective care in the future.

The “Add Patients, Change Everything!” initiative is sponsored by sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC. CAPS welcomes the support of sanofi-aventis for this important work and applaud its leaders for their commitment to listening to and learning from consumers.

The workshops build on a model CAPS and its partners have used since 2003, both in the United States and around the world, building on asuccessful international rollout of similar events by CAPS and the World Health Organization’s World Alliance for Patient Safety in London, San Francisco, Vancouver, Cairo, Jakarta, Dublin and Chicago.

CAPS believes that patient-centered care needs to transform from redesign of healthcare for patients and families to the redesign with patients and families. Patients and family member’s perspectives, experiences, wisdom, behavior and participation are priceless and essential resources for assuring safe, patient centered care.

Thought leaders cite the failure of the healthcare professions to engage consumers in patient safety work – to listen to the patient – as a key factor in delaying progress in making healthcare safer. CAPS is leading this innovative new effort to energize and involve consumers and the healthcare community in a meaningful collaboration to improve patient safety in the US.

CAPS will facilitate the workshops with participation limited to about 40 people at each event. Proposals were due August 15, 2008. (click here to download RFP)

OTHER RESOURCES & TOOLS

The Faces of Medical Error: From Tears to Transparency. Watch Video.

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