Patient safety

Promoting a culture of safe care

Quality health care also means creating a safe environment for our members and staff. We believe that
  • Patient safety comes first
  • Patient safety is every patient's right
  • Patient safety is every employee's responsibility
We are always developing, testing, and implementing new programs to make sure our patients receive safe, quality care. These programs address issues such as medication safety, infection prevention, and reducing the risk of surgical complications and patient falls.
 
Our patient safety programs also focus on clear communication. This means providing training to support communication among members of our health care teams. It also means providing medical interpreters, multilingual member education materials, and assistive technologies to accommodate unique patient care needs.
 
We encourage our members to provide feedback about the quality of our care and service. We welcome comments about not only your experiences in our medical offices, but also with pharmacy and lab operations, telephone services, and access to care. We carefully review your feedback and strive to make improvements on an ongoing basis.
 
As a result, each year, Kaiser Permanente sets specific priorities and goals and initiates regional and local activities designed to improve patient safety. And we continually monitor our performance against those goals to ensure that our efforts are effective and that we're meeting your needs.
 

Your role in getting safe care

You are the most important member of your health care team. When you visit our clinics and hospitals we encourage you to speak with your physicians and other team members to clarify information and instructions. Your care team will share with you additional education materials and instruction sheets, or they'll refer you to the wealth of information that is currently available on our website.
 
The more you understand your care, the better and safer it will be. Participating in your care is easy.

 

 *If you reasonably believe you have an emergency medical condition, which is a medical or psychiatric condition that requires immediate medical attention to prevent serious jeopardy to your health, call 911 or go to the nearest Emergency Department. For the complete definition of an emergency medical condition, please refer to your Evidence of Coverage (EOC).

Reviewed by: Quality, Risk Management & Patient Safety Department, August, 2023