Patient Safety

Prioritizing Safety for Patients and Providers

Since its inception, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation has tackled some of the most damaging, costly, and seemingly intractable problems in health care. The Foundation has become a leading voice in the patient safety arena, advocating for federal action to address harms in health care, supporting innovations that make patient care safer while alleviating the burdens on an already-strained healthcare workforce, training healthcare workers in safe and efficient practices, and promoting the potential for the Pittsburgh region to lead in developing patient safety tech solutions.

Patient safety is a core focus area for the Foundation because it can have a positive impact on health outcomes, reduce costs, and improve system efficiency. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, medical error was the third leading cause of death in the United States, with conservative estimates of more than 250,000 patients dying annually from preventable medical harm and costs of more than $17 billion to the U.S. healthcare system.