An influential annual list of Top 10 patient safety concerns includes a new emphasis on system safety, clinical processes and actionable advice. Two leaders from ECRI, the independent non-profit that issues the list, talk with Patient Safety Beat about the urgent need to increase the effectiveness of efforts to avoid patient harm and the real challenges health care organizations currently face.
The Roadmap to Health Care Safety for Massachusetts highlights the role leaders play at all levels — on clinical teams as well as health system governance, community health center boards, and elsewhere — in establishing trust, promoting equity and modeling safety culture.

At a forum in Boston last month, representatives from a variety of organizations across the state described how leaders can use the Roadmap to energize their patient safety efforts, emphasizing the role of education, recognition and incentives to create engagement and drive change.


In a new video spotlighting the harm that results from problems in our health care system, patients, family members and clinicians describe their direct experiences with unsafe care and medical error. Their stories reveal the far-ranging emotional, financial and professional effects caused by complex systems of care that cause harm to tens of thousands in Massachusetts each year. The video sparked discussion at the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum where the Roadmap to Health Care Safety was released in April.

Upcoming events
May 22-24
IHI Patient Safety Congress 2023. Held live in National Harbor, MD, with a remote livestream option. A team from the Betsy Lehman Center and the Massachusetts Healthcare Safety and Quality Consortium will host a discussion of the Roadmap to Health Care Safety on May 24 at 11 a.m. Register here
Sept. 29
9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Save the Date: 10th annual Communication, Apology and Resolution (CARe) Forum. This year’s CARe Forum will present case simulations and other material for live discussion in Boston, with an online option. Registration is free and will open at the end of the summer. For more information, contact Melinda Van Niel, CARe Program Director.
Patient Safety Beat is published by the Betsy Lehman Center, a Massachusetts state agency that supports providers, patients and policymakers working together to advance the safety and quality of health care.