Practical advice to patients

Practical advice to families and caregivers

• Stay up to date on your family member’s medical records, condition, treatment and general well-being
  
  
• Be vigilant and act as an extra set of eyes and ears to identify safety concerns, and escalate your concerns when the condition of your family member is deteriorating
  
  
• Participate in informed consent and make sure you understand the risks and benefits of any treatment or procedure
  
  
• Use all channels of communication with health and care workers to report your concerns and clarify any confusion
  
  
• Share your experiences, concerns and any suggestions for improvement of health care safety

Ideas for patients’ advocates and civil society organizations

• Raise awareness of patient rights to safe health care
  
  
• Lobby policy-makers to increase investment in building safer health care
  
  
• Work with your government and health and care workers to co-design safer health care
  
  
• Build your capacity to effectively share stories, care experiences and suggestions for safe care
  
  
• Organize events and participate in public awareness campaigns on patient safety, highlighting the patient engagement aspect
  
  
• Use peer education and support patients to enable them to take an active role in managing their own health
  
  
• Collaborate with policy-makers to enhance transparency and accountability in patient safety

Asks for health and care workers

• Ensure that patients are informed about their rights and responsibilities and safeguard their rights within your facility
  
  
• Encourage patients, their families and caregivers to participate as partners in their own care and promote shared decision-making
  
  
• Identify “what matters most” to patients and work with them to meet their expectations, needs and preferences
  
  
• Maintain ongoing dialogue with patients to encourage trust and satisfaction
  
  
• Empower patients with self-advocacy tools and education about self-care, including authorized self-medication as well as detection and reporting of danger signs
  
  
• Provide informative tools and educational materials to patients to enhance their awareness and knowledge of safe and effective self-care
  
  
• Disclose safety incidents to patients, families and caregivers in a transparent manner

Asks for health care leaders and managers (health facility)

• Include actions for patient and family engagement in the organization’s policy and planning
  
  
• Include patient representatives as part of the organization’s governing board and committees
  
  
• Involve patients and their families in co-designing and implementing patient safety initiatives
  
  
• Provide training and resources to health and care workers to enhance their communication and engagement skills with patients
  
  
• Encourage patients, and their families and caregivers, to report adverse events and unsafe practices
  
  
• Develop patient information materials on clinical procedures, relevant risks, and detection of and response to safety hazards
  
  
• Use patient feedback to improve processes for providing care for patient safety
  
  
• Utilize technologies that support patient engagement, such as mobile apps and patient portals
  
  
• Monitor the effectiveness of activities undertaken for patient engagement

Asks for governments

• Enact and implement a national patient safety rights charter or bill
  
  
• Implement policies that supports patient and family engagement
  
  
• Foster collaboration between patient advocates, health and care workers, patients’ organizations and civil society organizations to further health care safety and quality
  
  
• Create mechanisms to include patient representatives in national governance structures
  
  
• Engage patient advocates, health and care workers, patients’ organizations and civil society organizations in co-designing policies and service delivery
  
  
• Enable patients, health and care workers and civil society organizations to acquire knowledge and skills, and use tools for co-production initiatives
  
  
• Invest in resources that promote patient engagement, such as patient information and education materials, technology tools, and training programmes for health and care workers
  
  
• Put in place mechanisms to facilitate reporting of adverse events by patients
  
  
• Celebrate success and recognize contributions of patients’ organizations and civil society organizations to the design and delivery of safe health care