Patient Safety ─ Perspectives on Evidence, Information and Knowledge Transfer

Patient Safety: Perspectives on Evidence, Information and Knowledge Transfer provides background on the patient safety movement, systems safety, human error and other key philosophies that support change and innovation in the reduction of medical error. The book draws from multidisciplinary areas within the acute care environment to share models that support the proactive changes necessary to provide safe care delivery. The publication discusses how the tenets of safety (described in the beginning of the book) can be actively applied in the field to make evidence, information and knowledge (EIK) sharing processes reliable, effective and safe. This is a wide-ranging and important book that is designed to raise awareness of the latent risks for patient safety that are present in the EIK identification, acquisition and distribution processes, structures, and systems of many healthcare institutions across the world. The expert contributors offer systemic, evidence-based improvement processes, assessment concepts and innovative activities to identify these risks to minimize their potential to adversely impact care. These ideas are presented to create opportunities for the field to design and use strategies that enable meaningful implementation and management of EIK. Their thoughts will enable healthcare staff to see EIK as a tangible element contributing toward sustainable patient safety improvements.

Lorri Zipperer, Cybrarian, is the principal at Zipperer Project Management in Albuquerque, NM. Lorri was a founding staff member of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) as the information project manager. Lorri is an American Hospital Association/NPSF Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship alumnus. She has been recognized by the US based organizations, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and the Medical Library Association (MLA), for her project work and writing exploring the roles of librarians in medical error reduction.