Galter Awarded Funding for a Patient Safety Awareness Model in Public Libraries
Linda Walton, Associate Director, ljwalton@northwestern.edu
The Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS), and Zipperer Project Management have been awarded $40,000 in subcontract funding from the National Library of Medicine to develop a model for fostering community partnerships to inform and educate consumers and librarians on patient safety awareness. A group of public libraries from five communities in Northern Illinois, including a Chicago Public Library, are involved in the project titled, “Partnering for Patient Empowerment through Community Awareness.”
“This idea grew out of the notion that there are few organized dissemination efforts to get materials to the public that increase consumers’ levels of awareness and knowledge about their roles in improving safety,” said Roxanne J. Goeltz, CAPS Co-founder and President. “The subcontract partners are working together to bring patient safety information and awareness to consumers through an established community educational venue: the public library.”
Five community-based pairings of medical institutions and public libraries will serve as the test bed for the concept. The goals are:
- to improve communication among key players regarding patient safety awareness and healthcare information – the consumer, the healthcare professional and the librarian – so that the best quality care is provided to patients
- to improve consumer awareness about patient safety and healthcare resources so that, as patients or lay caregivers, they understand the importance of info rmation and feel empowered to accept an active role as partners in ensuring optimal care.
The components of the effort to meet the goals include: a) providing patient safety community awareness programs in public libraries for consumers; b) compiling a tool kit that can be used by libraries for building a patient safety partnership and awareness program in their community; and c) developing and maintaining a Web site on patient safety that can be accessed anywhere in the nation.
“The successful outcome of this project will be a model to support the development of community patient safety partnerships between consumer groups, public libraries and healthcare institutions,” said Linda Walton, MLS, Principal Investigator and Associate Director of Galter Health Sciences Library. “Information dissemination, awareness building and consumer education on patient safety all will begin at the community level.” Lorri Zipperer, MA, Principal, Zipperer Project Management, added, “Through in-person access to information providers, healthcare professionals and patients, all of whom have stories or knowledge to share, consumers will be shown pathways for taking an active, informed role in healthcare, thereby creating a safer healthcare system.”
This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. NO1-LM-1-3513.
