The Biden-Harris Administration has launched the National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety, a collaborative effort to improve healthcare safety. The alliance aims to reduce patient and workforce harm by 50% by 2026 through evidence-based strategies and cross-sector partnerships.
Improvement capability is an engine for change and transformation; the need for this capability is acute and ongoing with regard to patient safety. Broader goals include creating a culture of safety and learning, accountability and transparency, and patient and family engagement. Efforts to address that have taken many forms.
The launch of the 2022 Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety was blunted by COVID. More recently, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced seven new quality measures that inpatient hospitals will need to track and report as of 2025. That and other initiatives (see table) have brought patient and workforce safety to the forefront in new ways — particularly with a new alliance and new strategies to tackle this longstanding challenge.
The National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety (The National Action Alliance) is the center of a unique coalition of federal agencies, health systems, medical associations, researchers, and patient advocacy groups. With its mission of “safe care everywhere and zero preventable harm for all,” the National Action Alliance aims to reduce patient and workforce harm by 50% by 2026. Its first target is the inpatient hospital setting.
As effective harm reduction strategies are collected, they will eventually be disseminated nationally across all health settings and populations. For example, in October 2024, the CMS released their first quality initiative results for their Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) program.
