Patient Safety Resources for EmblemHealth Members

Patient safety is one of the nation's most pressing health care challenges. This page includes educational information to help you receive safer health care from providers in all types of health care settings. The Web links that follow provide information on important patient safety subjects, including ways to prevent medical errors; identify high-quality physicians, hospitals and nursing homes; patient safety guidelines; and assessment tools.

NCQA's Recognized Physician Directory allows you to identify some physicians in your area who demonstrate a high level of performance in providing care for specialties.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is a division of the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration, which supports research designed to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for Americans.

How to Talk to Your Doctor or Nurse – Knowing how to talk to your doctor, nurse or other members of your health care team will help you get the information you need.

20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors - Click on this link to read a patient fact sheet prepared by AHRQ on understanding medical errors and simple, practical ways for patients to actively prevent medical errors.

Tips about Elective Surgery provides a list of tips and questions to ask before elective surgery to help you prepare for your surgical experience and make it as safe and successful as possible.

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) site provides national and regional information and statistics on hospital care. HCUP is sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. This site allows you to research hospital utilization, access, charges, quality and outcomes, and more.

New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), Center for Consumer Health Care Information, Patient Safety Center - This NYS site has a wide range of information, including patient safety reports, clinical care guidelines, facts sheets, and quality levels of specific providers, hospitals, and nursing homes.

New York State Physician Profile provides detailed information on a provider including education, specialty, office locations, languages spoken, hospital affiliations, and any legal actions.

The Joint Commission maintains a Quality Check tool that can be used by consumers to compare providers or health care facilities to determine whether they provide the quality of care the patient needs.

Hospital Compare from Why Not the Best? See how well U.S. hospitals perform on measures of evidence-based care, patient experience, readmission and mortality rates, and costs.