This week was National Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 4-10). Some tools and resources are available from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that medical practices can utilize to continuously promote patient safety:

• A brief waiting room video emphasizing the importance of communication and question-asking between physicians and their patients.
• A brochure that provides guidelines for patients to be more involved in their health care, which includes suggestions for patients to follow during, before, and after their visits.
• A notepad to help patients prioritize their top three questions for physicians and a question builder tool to allow patients to create lists of questions based on their health condition.

Free copies of the DVD, brochure and notepad are available by emailing [email protected].