Scroll down to read these articles in this Issue: - Patient Safety Awareness Week March 8-14, 2026
An Initiative to Increasing Vaccine Rates in WA Nominate your staff for the Fall 2025 Speak-UP! Award The Washington Patient Safety Coalition (WPSC) is excited to announce the 2026 Health Equity: Innovation in Patient Safety Award (HE:IPS)! - Trailblazer Awards: Apply now!
|
|
|
Patient Safety Awareness Week March 8-14, 2026
|
Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 8-14, 2026, is intended to encourage everyone to learn more about healthcare safety.
The theme for Patient Safety Awareness Week in 2026 is "Team Up for Patient Safety." This theme emphasizes the importance of collaboration among healthcare teams, patients, and their families to enhance safety in care delivery. It aims to foster a culture of teamwork and communication, which is essential for effective patient safety initiatives.
The campaign encourages organizations to adapt activities to their own culture, patient populations, and care settings. Whether in hospitals, EMS agencies, long term care, clinics, or other environments, all processes should keep the focus on collaboration, open communication, and learning.
Organizations are encouraged to participate by recognizing their contributions to patient safety and planning activities that promote awareness. The Center for Patient Safety provides toolkits and resources to help organizations celebrate this week effectively. These resources include posters, banners, and educational materials to engage staff and the community in patient safety discussions.
|
|
|
An Initiative to Increasing Vaccine Rates in WA Did you know that vaccination rates in WA have decreased in recent years? The Washington Patient Safety Coalition was approached by the Washington State Dept. of Health to partner on developing a program to Increase Vaccination Rates in WA. Ideas include: -
Raise awareness of vaccination as an important patient safety issue
- Identify and promote evidence-based pediatric and adult strategies for immunization quality improvement aligned with trusted national associations
-
Develop and disseminate toolkits for health care organizations to strengthen vaccine delivery
- Encourage patients to be engaged with their healthcare providers around vaccination
| |
|
Nominate your staff for the Fall 2025 Speak-UP! Award |
The WPSC Speak-Up! Award is taking nominations for the Fall award. The nomination deadline is January 31, 2026
It is a statewide recognition program that celebrates the efforts of individuals and teams at Washington healthcare organizations who demonstrate a commitment to keeping patients and staff safe by speaking up and voicing their concerns to promote health care safety. This is a great way to recognize staff and Washington healthcare organizations for the fantastic work they are doing. It is open to clinical and non-clinical employees/team members from all Washington healthcare organizations, such as hospitals, pharmacies, long term care (e.g., skilled nursing facilities & assisted living facilities), clinics and physician offices to name some examples.
For more information go to the Speak-Up! Award website or contact Steve Levy, Executive Director, WPSC at slevy@qualityhealth.org. |
|
|
| The Washington Patient Safety Coalition (WPSC) is excited to announce the 2026 Health Equity: Innovation in Patient Safety Award (HE:IPS)! |
Applications open February 6, 2026.
The Health Equity: Innovation in Patient Safety Award (HE:IPS) recognizes health organizations that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to innovative ways of reducing health disparities and advancing health equity through policies and procedures that identify as well as close gaps in unequal treatment in the populations they serve, with a view to improving patient safety and health outcomes, particularly for people within target communities.
The WPSC applauds member organizations working tirelessly to eliminate barriers to equal and meaningful access to quality care for all patients, in support of the Coalition's vision of Safe care: every patient, every time, everywhere. To apply for the award, applicants must: - Be a WPSC member in good standing
- Complete the WPSC HE:IPSA application form
The WPSC HE:IPSA Award is awarded based on our Innovation in Patient Safety Standards, comprised of 7 Health Equity Commitments: - Patient Safety
-
Equitable and Inclusive Organizational Policy
- Culturally Competent Care
- Shared Decision-Making
|
|
|
Trailblazer Awards: Apply Now! |
Who can submit a score card to win an award? Any organization, clinic, department, district, etc. That is listed as an “audience” in a Bree report. For example: Schools, primary care clinics, state agencies, local health jurisdictions, ACH’s, etc.
How do I apply? Visit our , click on the category of interest (i.e. general topics, aging, behavioral health, etc.), navigate to the specific topic of interest (i.e. Behavioral Health/First Episode Psychosis, etc.), and click on the Metrics and Evaluation Tools tab to the left. You will find a score card section with a list of “audiences”. Choose the most appropriate audience(s) and fill out the relevant score card. These score cards measure your concordance with best practices. You can then submit the score card via email (excel format) to knicholas@qualityhealth.org or simply hit the Submit button (GIS web-based format).
What is the benefit for my organization or program? The Bree Collaborative and its parent organization, the Foundation for Health Care Quality, are a highly respected, neutral convener with an aim to improve health care quality in Washington state and beyond. Award winners will receive certificates and digital awards to post on their websites, in offices, and for use in communications. These awards can help you demonstrate to other stakeholders (such as the HCA, health plans, health purchasers, grant funders, etc.) that your organization has high fidelity with Bree Collaborative best practices.
Is there a deadline? No, there is no deadline for the , however we invite Trailblazer Award winners to apply for our next level, award – the annual . Those wishing to be invited to apply for the Mountain Climber Award should consider applying for the Trailblazer no later than March 1st , 2026.
For more information: email Karie Nicholas at OUR REPORTS & GUIDELINES | Bree Collaborative
A post on Bree Collaborative provided by:
________________________________________________________________
And...FHCQ is looking for individuals who would like to participate on this year's Mountain Climber Award judges panel in May of 2026. The time commitment is approximately 3-4 one-hour meetings and 2-4 hours of document review. For more information contact Karie Nicholas at knicholas@qualityhealth.org.
|
| |
|
|
