Patient Safety Toolkits from AHRQ

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has sets of toolkits designed to help health care institutions and clinicians provide—and consumers receive—safe, quality health care at various points in the health care process—in the hospital, in the emergency department, in the intensive care unit, in the pharmacy, and when being discharged from one setting to another.

The 17 toolkits were produced under AHRQ's Partnerships in Implementing Patient Safety (PIPS) grant program and include multidisciplinary evidence-based tools, including training materials, medication guides and checklists, that are easily adapted to other institutions and care settings. 

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Toolkits by Setting Type

Hospital — General 
Emergency Departments 
Hospital Care Units 
Outpatient Settings 
Consumer/Patient Care

Hospital—General – These toolkits contain evidence-based resources to help inpatient facilities improve performance around some of the most common and most serious patient safety problems faced by hospitals today.

• The Emergency Department Pharmacist as a Safety Measure in Emergency Medicine
• Improving Hospital Discharge Through Medication Reconciliation and Education
• Improving Medication Adherence
• Interactive Venous Thromboembolism Safety Toolkit for Providers and Patients
• Patient Multidisciplinary Training for Medication Reconciliation
• Implementing a Program of Patient Safety in Small Rural Hospitals ;
• Preventing Venous Thromboembolisms in the Hospital
• Reducing Central Line Bloodstream Infections and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
• Reducing Discrepancies in Medication Histories and Orders at Handoffs
• Testing the Re-Engineered Hospital Discharge (One of my favorites- see Louise)
• Using Military Simulation to Improve Rural Obstetric Safety

Emergency Departments – These toolkits contain resources to help hospitals apply evidence-based safe practices in the Emergency Department (ED) to improve patient flow, implement a multidisciplinary simulation-based safety curriculum, and improve medication safety by implementing a formal ED pharmacist program.

• The Emergency Department Pharmacist as a Safety Measure in Emergency Medicine
• Improving Patient Flow in the Emergency Department
• A Simulation-Based Safety Curriculum in a Children's Hospital Emergency Department

Hospital Care Units – These toolkits contain resources to help hospitals apply evidence-based safe practices.

• Implementing Reduced Work Hours to Improve Patient Safety
• Improving Patient Safety Through Enhanced Provider Communication
• Reducing Central Line Bloodstream Infections and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Outpatient Settings – These toolkits contain resources to help facilities address outpatient medication safety by applying evidence-based safe practices.

• Improving Hospital Discharge Through Medication Reconciliation and Education
• Improving Medication Safety in Clinics for Patients 55 and Older 
  Improving Warfarin Management
• Patient Multidisciplinary Training for Medication Reconciliation
• Testing the Re-Engineered Hospital Discharge

Consumer/Patient Care – These toolkits contain resources to help facilities educate consumers in medication safety and post-hospital care.

• Improving Hospital Discharge Through Medication Reconciliation and Education
• Improving Medication Adherence
• Improving Medication Safety in Clinics for Patients 55 and Older
• Improving Warfarin Management
• Testing the Re-Engineered Hospital Discharge
• Using Military Simulation to Improve Rural Obstetric Safety 

Additional toolkits may be added as they are developed and will be found at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/pips/