Patient Safety

Course Overview

Preventable patient harms, including medical errors and healthcare-associated complications, are a global public health threat. Moreover, patients frequently do not receive treatments and interventions known to improve their outcomes. These shortcomings typically result not from individual clinicians’ mistakes, but from systemic problems -- communication breakdowns, poor teamwork, and poorly designed care processes, to name a few. The Patient Safety & Quality Leadership Specialization covers the concepts and methodologies used in process improvement within healthcare. Successful participants will develop a system’s view of safety and quality challenges and will learn strategies for improving culture, enhancing teamwork, managing change and measuring success. They will also lead all aspects of a patient safety and/or quality improvement project, applying the methods described over the seven courses in the specialization.