Patient Safety Awareness Week

March 9th - 15th is Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW)

The Center for Patient Safety has adopted the theme of “Moving the Needle” to endorse their global campaign to bring awareness to patient safety through the good work being done in this area. They want staff and organizations to recognize all they do to deliver safe patient care. We are often quick to look at the negative or wrong things, but we all need to stop and celebrate the good work we do. Three questions they are asking are:

• How have I helped to improve patient safety?

• How have I helped to move the needle closer to the safest care possible?

• What am I going to do next to improve care delivery?

  
  

These are great questions, and how would you answer them? Bring them up at your daily huddle or in a staff meeting. The conversation about patient safety should be ongoing, with assessments and initiatives to improve the safe delivery of care for all involved. 

(Center for Patient Safety, 2025)

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement theme this year for PSAW focuses on what the healthcare worker thinks. They are asking, “What do I believe matters for achieving constancy of purpose of safety (para. 2)?” They discuss the power of “A” which is: 

1. Awareness 

   • Raise awareness for yourself, your healthcare organization, and the communities you serve. Check out the great resources they offer in this description about raising awareness for individuals and organizations to use. 

2. Assessment

   • In this section, they offer a Self-Assessment tool for organizations to use with a group that includes patient(s) and family member(s) to look at what they do well and where there is room for improvements related to the many aspects of patient safety. 

3. Action

   • This bullet calls to action the organization to initiative and implement a plan based on the areas found from the self-assessment that need improving. This may sound familiar as it relates closely to a quality improvement plan such as the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA). 

(Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2025)

The American Hospital Association has been around since 1898 helping healthcare leaders and organizations rewarding healthcare issues and trends. They have offered patient safety goals for 2025 which include:

Increase:

• Engagement in patient safety

• Public trust in hospitals and health systems

• Accurate, meaningful data

• Development of improvement tools and strategies

• Uptake of evidence-based and equity-grounded patient safety measures

• Development of insights to feed advocacy

  
  

Decrease:

• Preventable harms

• Disparities in healthcare outcomes

• Administrative reporting burden

• Misinformation and disinformation surrounding patient safety

• Collection of data that is unnecessary or compromises patient privacy

(American Hospital Association [AHA], 2025)

For more information from the American Hospital Association, go to their website, https://www.aha.org/aha-patient-safety-initiative, and see all the different resources offered on patient safety. 

(AHA, 2025)

As we recognize Patient Safety Awareness Week, let’s reaffirm our commitment to creating safer environments for our patients and ourselves. No matter how small, every action contributes to better outcomes and stronger trust in healthcare. Whether speaking up about concerns, double-checking medications, or educating patients, your vigilance makes a difference. Thank you for being the frontline of safety and your dedication to excellence. Let’s continue to advocate, educate, and elevate patient care because safety starts with us.

Let us know what initiatives your organization is doing to produce positive outcomes related to patient safety. 

References

American Hospital Association. 2025. AHA patient safety initiative.  https://www.aha.org/aha-patient-safety-initiative

Center for Patient Safety. (2025). Patient safety awareness week (PSAW). https://www.centerforpatientsafety.org/patient-safety-awareness-week-psaw

Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2025). The power of A’s for patient safety awareness week 2025: Awareness, assessment, and action. https://www.ihi.org/insights/power-patient-safety-awareness-week-2025-awareness-assessment-and-action