Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety

Advance the safety of health information technology through collaboration and dissemination of best practices

The Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety (Partnership), a multi-stakeholder collaborative, brings together providers, vendors, development companies, professional organizations, human factors experts, and others to set priorities in health IT safety. We evaluate all available evidence, derive safety recommendations, and prioritize how to achieve the greatest impact.

Access our library of resources developed to help make Health IT safer
Learn from our in-depth study of health IT events in safe practice recommendations and toolkits
Share the responsibility of shaping the future of health IT safety

Learn more about our vision for a national collaborative and join the Partnership by contacting hit@ecri.org.

The Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety is sponsored through funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

What’s New from the Partnership

Building on our library of safe practices and lessons learned, the Partnership recently added the following:

Health IT Safe Practices for Closing the Loop

The Partnership's latest workgroup—chaired by Christoph U. Lehmann, MD, professor of pediatrics and biomedical informatics, Vanderbilt University—has just released three safe practice recommendations for closing the loop on test tracking and medication changes:

Develop and apply IT solutions to communicate the right information (including data needed for interpretation) to the right people, at the right time, in the right format
Implement health IT solutions to track key areas
Use health IT to link and acknowledge the review of information and the documentation of the action taken

The toolkit includes detailed implementation strategies to address communication, tracking, and linking information along with an evidence-based literature review.

Safe Practice Recommendations for Developing, Implementing, and Integrating a Health IT Safety Program

Health information technology (IT) is an integral part of healthcare today. Development and use of these technologies can both positively and negatively affect patient safety. Working collaboratively it is possible to see the benefits of incorporating health IT safety and safety lessons into a safety program.

The Partnership's workgroup, chaired by Patricia P. Sengstack, DNP, RN-BC, FAAN, of Vanderbilt University, has finalized new safe practice recommendations and tools for developing, implementing, and integrating a health IT safety program.