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What Is the National Action Alliance?

The National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety is a collective effort of federal agencies and private partners to improve the safety of patients and the healthcare workforce. Working together, the National Action Alliance catalyzes change by applying known harm reduction strategies and sharing best practices and lessons learned. Recognizing that healthcare is not safe until it is safe for all, the National Action Alliance works to address harm across all populations and settings to meet the wide-ranging needs of patients, caregivers, and the healthcare workforce.

The National Action Alliance envisions a future with safe care everywhere and zero preventable harm for all. Its mission is to pursue a total systems approach to improving safety that aligns with the National Action Plan (NAP) to Advance Patient Safety. The National Action Alliance focuses on the NAP's four foundational elements of safety: culture, leadership, and governance; patient and family engagement; workforce safety; and learning health system development. Learn more about the background of the National Action Alliance.

The Five Aims of the National Action Alliance

The National Action Alliance's aims—outlined below—are intended to help all healthcare systems strengthen their patient and workforce safety outcomes.

1. Advance Healthcare Organization Safety Strategies Using Safety Self-Assessments
   • Encourage healthcare organizations to perform safety self-assessments focused on the NAP’s foundational elements.
   • Support healthcare organizations in their efforts to enact safety strategies based on identified gaps.
2. Empower the Patient's Voice in Safety Strategy
   • Allow patients and families to submit safety concerns into healthcare organization event reporting systems.
   • Encourage healthcare organizations to implement communication and resolution programs.
   • Engage patients and families in safety event reviews and in safety initiative planning.
3. Support the Healthcare Workforce by Making Healthcare Safer by Design
   • Identify and address five high-priority safety engineering needs.
4. Support the Healthcare Workforce by Strengthening Healthcare Safety Competencies
   • Ensure all healthcare team members, from administrators to clinical and non-clinical staff, receive training in fundamental safety competencies.
5. Facilitate a Learning and Research Network
   • Encourage learning and sharing across network.
   • Spotlight change leaders.
   • Promote robust safety measurement locally and nationally.
   • Support research to address high-priority needs in patient and workforce safety.

Approach to Achieving National Action Alliance Aims

The National Action Alliance supports healthcare organizations in their safety journey. Reading the figure below from bottom to top, healthcare organizations first identify priority areas for improving safety by conducting a baseline . They can then drive improvements in those safety areas within their organization by using the National Action Alliance’s activities and resources. For example, they can leverage the curated list of Safety Tools as well as federally sponsored implementation initiatives and funding opportunities to support their own safety improvement initiatives. They can participate in webinars featuring national healthcare leaders, including patient advocates, to learn about new tools, hear case studies of successful safety initiatives, and deepen their knowledge on priority safety topics—including those that the National Action Alliance’s Patient Safety Competencies and Engineering Safety Into Practice Affinity Groups are working to advance. As healthcare organizations implement safety improvement initiatives, they can access National Healthcare Safety Measures to help them interpret their performance against national benchmarks and trends.

The National Action Alliance’s activities and resources are specifically designed and routinely adapted to help healthcare organizations and their partners in the healthcare community collectively achieve a shared goal of eliminating preventable harm. This community includes but is not limited to patients and families, healthcare provider organizations, national quality improvement organizations, and Federal partners, among many others. AHRQ’s National Advisory Council provides guidance, while a group of federal and private partners, including the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety, help organize these activities and resources and continually adapt them to the changing needs of the community.

Interested in learning about updates to this website? Sign up for the to receive the monthly newsletter with new resources, events, and opportunities. You can also email NationalActionAlliance@hhs.gov to share feedback and ideas.