Patient Safety and Quality

Abstract

Patient safety and quality is concerned with organizational practices and policies that reduce patient harm. Patient safety and quality practices are designed to create an organizational culture of patient safety that emphasizes safety, equity, and a long‐term commitment to positive health outcomes. Patient safety is a popular topic in medicine and nursing, but has not been studied extensively in the communication discipline. Health communication research on patient safety and quality centers primarily on communication and medical errors, although there is limited health communication research on other elements of patient safety. Health communication research on medical errors examines the communication act of clinician disclosure and apology of medical errors, which is driven by interpersonal communication competence and organizational policies dictating disclosure and apology. A variety of strategies help to guide clinicians' patient safety communication, including handoff interactions with other clinicians. Communication training is needed for clinicians to become comfortable communicating about patient safety and to ultimately create organizational cultures of patient safety in healthcare organizations. Future health communication research is needed to explore all of the facets of patient safety and identify successful communication strategies to navigate structural issues that impact patient safety.