Safety participation at the direct care level: results of a patient questionnaire.
Patients are increasingly encouraged to actively participate in their own care as a method to increase safety. In this study of 28 hospitalized patients, most believed they could rely on their own knowledge and alertness to protect themselves from medical error and just over half indicated they “always” or “usually” check their medications. The authors recommend further research into patient involvement with prevention of medication errors and, more broadly, development and validation of an instrument to measure in-hospital patient safety.