Center for Patient Safety

The AMA Center for Patient Safety is helping physicians help patients by encouraging physician leadership and involvement in improving patient care. As a national leader in patient safety, the AMA diligently pursues initiatives that best serve the changing needs of America's physicians and patients. By leading and supporting national patient safety efforts, such as awareness programs, national campaigns, confidential error-reporting systems and patient education efforts, the AMA is working diligently to promote a culture of patient safety.

The AMA aims to improve patient safety by providing model programs and tools and advocating for safe clinical work environments for patients, physicians, and the health care team. In its tools, the AMA offers guidance from national experts for implementing safety improvements at the point of care. The AMA strives to offer tools that provide an overview of the issue, instructions for getting started, implementation strategies, steps for organizations and hospitals to take, tips on communication effectiveness, the important role of patients and proven interventions.

AMA Observes Patient Safety Awareness Week

Every March, the AMA joins the health care community in its celebration of Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW). During PSAW, health care organizations promote patient safety and highlight the work they have done and are currently doing to improve patient safety, health care quality and patient education. The national theme this year is "Be Aware for Safe Care."

Each year the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) sponsors PSAW to encourage hospitals to actively engage their communities in patient safety activities and in all aspects of their health care. The week honors John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, a leader whose commitment to patient safety and health care quality is memorialized by the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety Awards, given each year to recognize individuals and health care organizations making significant contributions to improving patient safety. The AMA established the NPSF in 1996, and has since donated more than $7 million to the foundation and remained actively involved in its governance.

The AMA's patient safety efforts include tools to enhance and strengthen the patient-physician relationship and patient education to assist involvement in and safe management of their care. Please join the AMA in its on-going efforts to promote excellence in patient care.

New at the Center for Patient Safety

Research in Ambulatory Patient Safety 2000-2010: A 10-year Review

Most research on patient safety has examined hospital care, but each year 300 Americans are seen in ambulatory settings for every one person admitted to a hospital—and research shows that errors in ambulatory settings can be just as devastating as those in hospitals.

The AMA Center for Patient Safety is pleased to provide a new report that compiles and summarizes the research on patient safety in ambulatory care settings over the last decade.

The report offers a comprehensive look at some important, but under-appreciated aspects of patient safety, from office-based surgery to medication and diagnostic errors, to recent efforts to understand communication errors, and to the controversial study of patient responsibilities and family roles in ensuring safe care in the ambulatory setting.

Physician's Guide to Patient Safety Organizations

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 created a federal voluntary confidential and anonymous safety and quality reporting system. This law protects certain information reporters submit to patient safety organizations—called PSOs—created by the Act. To help physicians better understand how the reporting system works and PSOs, the AMA developed the "Physician's Guide to Patient Safety Organizations" to assist physician participation in their organizations' selection of PSOs and establishing the reporting process reporting. The guide offers practical information on many components of the Act, including how an organization may select a PSO, a glossary of the Act's terms, a process checklist, and a work-flow model.

Patient Safety Organization Participation: A Leadership Checklist

The AMA’s Center for Patient Safety leadership checklist is offered as a first step in assessing your organization's readiness to join a PSO. The Center for Patient Safety encourages you to use the checklist as part of an ongoing process to ensure your organization optimizes its participation in the federal safety and quality reporting system. The leadership checklist provides a means to strengthen your system's safety and learning culture, and organization's infrastructure and resources to better meet the Patient Safety Act's goal of providing safer care to your patients.

My Medications App Now Available

With My Medications your patients can store, carry and share their critical medical information (i.e., medications, allergies, emergency contacts, etc.) in one secure place.

My Medications is available for the Apple iPhone®, iPad® and iPod Touch® on the AMA iTunes store.

The AMA's Center for Patient Safety offers information in the following areas:

Important AMA Information Related to Patient Safety

External Resources

Email the Center for Patient Safety for more information.