NPSF Patient Safety Congress to Host Partnership for Patients One-Year Celebration

BOSTON, Dec. 21,  2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Patient Safety Foundation, in conjunction with leaders from throughout the health care spectrum, announced plans to mark the one-year anniversary of the groundbreaking Partnership for Patients Initiative at the NPSF Patient Safety Congress to be held May 23-25 in Washington, DC.

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The plans were announced last week at a plenary session of QualityNet 2011 attended by Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other renowned health leaders. Sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the QualityNet conference connects national health care quality experts from CMS, quality improvement organizations, health care providers, industry, and other private and public stakeholders to discuss improving the quality of health care that Medicare patients receive.

As a founding participant of the Partnership for Patients, the National Patient Safety Foundation was among 14 "Results-Getters" invited to present at the session on Celebrating Results. NPSF President Diane C. Pinakiewicz, MBA, presented a proposal for integrating the Partnership for Patients goals and principles into both the pre-Congress and Congress activities. "The NPSF mission closely parallels much of what the Partnership for Patients was designed to achieve," said Pinakiewicz. "It just made sense to us that, at the one-year mark, we should gather the diverse stakeholders to take stock, recognize the results to date, and plan for next steps."

The anniversary plans include a plenary session at Congress designed to showcase Partnership for Patients accomplishments; a learning session on the role of consumers and patient advocates; and discussion of wider opportunities for community engagement in health care and patient safety. Pinakiewicz positioned the activities as a way to create a "patient engagement on-ramp" for providers to use in building effective partnerships with patients and families.

Each year, the NPSF Patient Safety Congress draws a distinguished faculty from a variety of settings and backgrounds and presents insightful and motivational sessions that feature influential keynote speakers. The 14^th annual Congress will be held at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD. For information, visit npsfcongress.org.

About the National Patient Safety Foundation

The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) has been pursuing one mission since its founding in 1997—to improve the safety of care provided to patients. As a central voice for patient safety, NPSF is committed to a collaborative, inclusive, multistakeholder approach in all that it does. NPSF is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. To learn more about the work of the National Patient Safety Foundation, please visit www.npsf.org.

SOURCE National Patient Safety Foundation