Tools and resources - Other resources

Toolkit

Help prevent errors in your care: for surgical patients Tips to help patients prepare for surgery and make sure they have the correct procedure performed at the correct site on their body.
Things you can do to prevent medication mistakes Questions to ask at the clinic, hospital, doctor's office, or pharmacy to prevent medication mistakes. Includes a wallet card to list medications.
Help prevent medical test mistakes Questions and answers to help patients prepare for important medical and laboratory tests so they can get the treatment they need as soon as possible.

World Health Organization USA
Patient Safety Authority USA
Correct Site Surgery Alert National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA)
NPSA - Right patient right care March 2005

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Highlights the areas where technological advances can be harnessed to ensure that patient identities are not confused and that each patient receives the medication and care intended for them. It points to significant opportunities to enhance patient safety by working with the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) to ensure that new technologies such as barcoding, radio frequency tagging and biometrics such as fingerprinting are compatible with it both nationally and locally.

NPSA Wristbands for hospital inpatients improves safety November 2005

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The advice was developed to raise awareness among NHS staff, patients and carers of how patient safety can be compromised if a wristband is not worn or contains incorrect information. Between November 2003 and July 2005, the NPSA received 236 reports of patient safety incidents and near misses relating to missing wristbands or wristbands with incorrect information. Mismatching patients and their care can result in serious, lasting harm such as chronic pain, undiagnosed cancers, blindness and even death.