Improve Patient Safety Across Your Organization
Strengthening Safety, Reliability, and Trust in Health Care
Health care error remains a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Much patient harm, from diagnostic errors to medication mistakes, —is preventable, yet safety processes are often mismanaged through fragmented processes rather than proactively designed into the system. Risk accumulates across poor communication, complex workflows, and competing priorities, while learning is inconsistently captured.
IHI addresses this gap through patient safety consulting that embeds improvement science directly into organizational systems. Working with health care leaders and frontline teams around the world, IHI consultants apply safety science, data, and co-design to reduce risk, prevent harm, and strengthen reliability.
Our patient safety consulting work supports organizations to:
- Build leadership commitment to fostering a culture of safety at every level
- Develop resilient and continuous learning systems that prioritize patient safety
- Increase operational efficiency by preventing costly errors and delays
- Enhance reputation in the health care industry as a leader in high-quality care
Together, we develop conducive environments where patients and families are engaged, workforce well-being is supported, and resilient learning systems are established to ensure every patient consistently receives safe, reliable, effective, and equitable care.
Designing Systems for Patient Safety
Patient safety means more than enhancing health care quality. It means creating an environment where safer care is consistently delivered across systems and teams. It means applying standardized methods and best practices for lowering risk to patients, reducing errors, and minimizing impact when harm occurs.
IHI consulting brings improvement science directly to your teams, applying a total systems approach to identify root causes of harm and proactively assess failure points, moving beyond reactive safety (Safety-I) toward learning from what goes right (Safety-II).
Using practical improvement methods, evidence-based practices, and test changes using PDSA cycles and measurement strategies, we help organizations strengthen communication, build leadership accountability, and sustain improvements in safety across settings and at every level of an organization.
Designing Systems for Patient Safety
IHI partners with health systems, ministries, professional associations, foundations, and global organizations to strengthen patient safety through coordinated system-wide improvement and scalable learning models.
Health Systems and Regional Partners
IHI partners with global health systems and ministries of health to embed patient safety and improvement capability into care delivery. Examples include Massachusetts General Hospital, the VA National Center for Patient Safety, East London NHS Foundation Trust, Hamad Medical Corporation, Singapore’s Ministry of Health, and Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health.
Result: Safer, more reliable care supported by systems designed to learn and improve over time.
Professional Associations and Safety Bodies
IHI works with professional associations and accrediting bodies to strengthen shared learning and safety standards. This includes The Joint Commission, National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), and The Leapfrog Group.
Result: More consistent expectations and broader adoption of evidence-based safety practices.
Foundations and Strategic Partners
IHI works with foundations and strategic partners that support innovation and learning in patient safety. This includes partnerships with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, collaboration with St. Jude Global, and work with The Health Foundation (UK) on maternal health and equity related safety. IHI also partners with industry organizations, including Philips, Medtronic, Baxter, and Merck, to support the spread of safer practices.
Result: Tested models, shared evidence, and sustained investment that enable safety improvements to scale across settings.
Global Organizations and National Coalitions
IHI collaborates with international bodies and national coalitions to advance patient safety through coordinated, system-level improvement. This work includes collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) on global patient safety action plans and participation in the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety, and the Transforming Safety Together (TST) Network. IHI also works through networks including Patients for Patient Safety US to support leadership alignment and patient engagement in safety efforts.
Result: Shared frameworks, aligned priorities, and scalable approaches that support safer care across health systems and countries.
Explore How IHI Helps to Advance a Total Systems Approach to Safety
IHI equips your clinicians, leaders, and teams with improvement science expertise and practical safety strategies. Our team works directly with your teams to apply and integrate proven safety practices into daily operations and drive measurable, lasting improvement.
- Leading a Culture of Safety: A Blueprint for Success (Guide)
Strategies and practical tactics for leaders to assess and advance a culture of safety. - A Framework for Safe, Reliable, Effective Care (White Paper)
Key strategic, clinical, and operational components of operational excellence in safety. - National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety (Report)
Clear direction and 17 recommendations to reduce harm across the continuum of care - IHI Lucian Leape Institute: Improving Patient Safety (Resource)
Bold ideas, research, and publications advancing the future of patient safety - Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) (Certification)
An accredited certification that builds expertise in patient safety principles and practice - IHI Open School: Patient Safety Curriculum (Courses)
On-demand courses to build foundational and advanced safety capability
Transform Your Organization Into a Culture of Safety
IHI equips your clinicians, leaders, and teams with improvement science expertise and practical safety strategies. Our team works directly with your teams to apply and integrate proven safety practices into daily operations and drive measurable, lasting improvement.
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