Patient Safety Websites

Want to learn more about patient safety? Take a look at this list of websites. While not an exhaustive list, it should provide good background information on many facets of patient safety. For a more in-depth list of resources you may want to review the resources offered by the National Patient Safety Foundation.

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General Information Sites

Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) Quick tip sheets
Five Steps to Safer Health Care PDF
20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors
20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors in Children PDF
Your Medicine: Play It Safe PDF

Buying Medicines and Medical Products Online
This FDA site offers tips and warnings for consumers interested in purchasing medication online.

Buying Prescription Medicines Online: A Consumer Safety Guide
Explores potential risks associated with buying medications online as well as a list of "do's and don'ts" for consumers.

Check Your Medicines
Tips for taking medicines safely from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

General Advice on Safe Medication Use
A list of things you can do at home, in the hospital, and at the doctor's office to promote safe use of medications.

Having Surgery? What You Need to Know
From the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, a thorough list of questions you should ask your doctor prior to surgical procedures.

“What Did the Doctor Say?:” Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety
A 64 page PDF from the Joint Commission focussing specific ways to improve health literacy among patients.

National Patient Safety Foundation Online Fact Sheets & Brochures in Patient Safety
A compendium of links from the National Patient Safety Foundation to websites containing consumer oriented materials promoting patient safety.

North American Spine Society—Patient Safety
This safety site includes a Patient Safety 101 PowerPoint presentation, as well as links to papers on systems safety, and the roles of patients, health care providers, and health care institutions in promoting safety.

MedlinePlus—Patient Safety
A collection of patient safety sites from the National Library of Medicine.

Preventing Medicine Mishaps
From the Consumer Health Information Corporation, an easy to understand list of questions you should ask your doctor or pharmacist to avoid medicine-related errors.

USP-ISMP Medical Errors Reporting Program
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) launched this program and
partnered with United States Pharmacopeia (USP) to develop and support this
confidential and voluntary program to enable both health care professionals
and consumers to report medication errors.

USP Personal Medication Organizer
Print this page and write down all of your medication and health provider information in one handy place.

What you can do to Avoid Medication Errors
From the Committee on Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors, Institute of Medicine comes advice on preventing errors as an outpatient, inpatient, at home and at the pharmacy.

What You Should Know About Herbal and Dietary Supplement Use and Anesthesia
From the American Society of Anesthesiologists, a two page guide which explains drug interactions and possible side effects for some commonly used herbal supplements.

Gathering Medical Information

Now You Have a Diagnosis: What’s Next?
This site from the Health Legacy Project provides assistance in finding reliable health care information, an overview of the major types of medical research studies, and tools to aid in decision making.

familydoctor.org
From the American Academy of Family Physicians, a comprehensive site with sections on specific conditions, healthy living, and health tools. There are also pages devoted to women, men, and children’s health. A great deal of the information is available in Spanish as well as English.

Healthfinder.gov
A service of the National Health Information Center, Healthfinder is a directory of consumer oriented websites. The Health Library section includes information on diseases, conditions, and injuries. The site also includes an directory of federal and state health care agencies.

MayoClinic.com
This site provides an abundance of quality consumer health information including in-depth synopses of diseases which describe causes, risk factors, screening, complications, and therapies. The drugs and supplements section offers excellent information on prescription and over-the-counter medications.

MedlinePlus
Produced by the National Library of Medicine, MedLinePlus offers a medical dictionary and encyclopedia, drug information, and consumer oriented information on hundreds of medical conditions.

Evaluating Medical Information

Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct
The Health on the Net Foundation developed this set of principles for determining the quality and accuracy of health information on the Internet.

Is this Health Information Good for Me?
The Pacific Northwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine compiled this helpful list of criteria to consider when evaluating health information.

MedlinePlus: Evaluating Health Information on the Web
A set of links to other sites with information on how to evaluate medical information on the web.

MedlinePlus: Guide to Healthy Web Surfing
Practical guidelines for evaluating health information found on web.

MLA User's Guide to Finding and Evaluating Health Information on the Web
From the Medical Library Association, a detailed guide to evaluating health information websites. The guide also includes descriptions of top quality health websites and highly recommended sites for information on cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

National Cancer Institute's "How To Evaluate Health Information on the Internet"
A list of 12 questions you should ask when researching health information on the Internet.