System Safety in Healthcare

Recently, I was invited to give my opinion as a patient advocate during a retreat organized by three U.S. federal government groups: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Office of Health and Human Services. The topic was “Partnership for Patients.” The AHRQ showed data on the significant progress made in the last four years on Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) measures. The data showed that more and more hospitals are achieving higher scores.