21st Patient Safety Fellowship Focuses on Patient Engagement and Communication
Type: News
Focus Area: Workforce Development
The newest cohort of Patient Safety fellows meet for a session at JHF.
For more than two decades, the patient safety movement has called for meaningful engagement of patients and families—not just as recipients of care, but as partners in designing it. Despite this, progress has been slow, and the tools to reliably gather and act on patient safety concerns remain fragmented or underused. As definitions of harm have expanded to include emotional as well as physical impacts, it’s increasingly clear: understanding how patients feel about their safety—and empowering them to speak up—is as critical as any clinical metric. The 21st annual Patient Safety Fellowship, hosted by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, and Health Careers Futures, is responding to that call.
This summer, 25 fellows from 10 academic institutions and 14 diverse disciplines have convened in Pittsburgh to consider a missing ingredient in advancing safer care: the patient and their family. Their shared mission is to explore how improved patient–provider communication—supported by technology and grounded in empathy—can prevent harm and rebuild trust in health care.
Karen Feinstein discusses the Foundation’s focus on patient safety and reducing medical error at the Fellowship kick-off.
“The Patient Safety Fellowship is a masterclass for anyone looking to understand patient safety challenges. I appreciate the real-world immersion through expert lectures, visits and fellow attendees some of whom already work on improving patient safety,” said Mahima Batheja, a Master of Science student in health care analytics and information technology at Carnegie Mellon University. “As someone without a medical background but with a keen interest in developing solutions for patients, I look forward to the site visit and working with my team to solve a real problem for a health segment I care about.”
Over the course of eight sessions, fellows will engage with national experts in safety science, digital health, and communication strategy. Working in interdisciplinary groups, they will investigate safety risks in one of five care settings—long-term care and aging, adolescent behavioral health, maternal care, childhood vaccinations, and HIV/AIDS—and propose solutions aimed at improving communication and engagement in order to reduce harm.
To inform their work, fellows will participate in guided site visits to local healthcare organizations: The Willows, A Presbyterian SeniorCare Network Community; UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Whole Child Wellness Clinic; The Midwife Center; the Squirrel Hill Health Center; and Allies for Health and Wellbeing. These firsthand experiences will help fellows uncover real-world communication best practices and challenges and enable them to identify opportunities to co-design safer, more responsive systems.
The Fellowship will culminate in a final “Solutions Showcase,” where groups will present their communication-centered toolkits or interventions to a panel of peers and professionals.
“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to be a Patient Safety Fellow with the Jewish Healthcare Foundation this summer. As an early-career professional hoping to engage more in the clinical space, the past two weeks have been deeply insightful. Already, I have learned about the work the Jewish Healthcare Foundation has done to advance the field of patient safety and the innovation occurring to improve patient safety. I am looking forward to learning more from my peers and experts over these next couple weeks,” said Mary Angbanzan, BA, coordinator at the Office of Social Innovation, David C. Frederick Honors College, University of Pittsburgh.
