Overview of the National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety

What Is the National Action Alliance?

The National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety is a collective effort of federal agencies and private partners to improve the safety of patients and the healthcare workforce. Working together the National Action Alliance catalyzes change by applying known harm reduction strategies and sharing best practices and lessons learned. Recognizing that healthcare is not safe until it is safe for all, the National Action Alliance works to address harm across all populations and settings to meet the wide-ranging needs of patients, caregivers, and the healthcare workforce.

Vision

Safe care everywhere, zero preventable harm for all.

Mission

In alignment with the National Action Plan (NAP) to Advance Patient Safety, the National Action Alliance seeks a total systems approach to improving safety, focused on the NAP's four foundational elements of safety, including: culture, leadership, and governance; patient and family engagement; workforce safety; and learning health system development. Our ultimate vision is to achieve safe care everywhere, and zero preventable harm for all.

Five Aims

The National Action Alliance's aims—outlined below—are intended to help all healthcare systems strengthen their patient and workforce safety outcomes.

1. Advance Healthcare Organization Safety Strategies Using Safety Self-Assessments
   • Encourage healthcare organizations to perform safety self-assessments.
   • Support healthcare organizations in their efforts to enact safety strategies based on identified gaps.
2. Empower the Patient's Voice in Safety Strategy
   • Engaging patients and families in safety event reviews and in safety initiative planning.
   • Encouraging healthcare organizations to implement communication and resolution programs.
3. Make Healthcare Safer by Design
   • Identify scalable opportunities for better engineering safety into key healthcare practice.
4. Strengthen Healthcare Safety Competencies
   • Help all healthcare team members increase their capacity for implementing safety practices, from board members to administrators to clinical and non-clinical team members.
5. Support Learning and Research Network
   • Encourage learning and sharing across network.
   • Spotlight change leaders.
   • Promote robust safety measurement locally and nationally.
   • Support research to address high-priority needs in patient and workforce safety.