Providing a Strategic Vision for Improving Patient Safety

The NPSF Lucian Leape Institute was formed in 2007 to provide a strategic vision for improving patient safety. Composed of national thought leaders with a common interest in patient safety, the Institute functions as a think tank to identify new approaches to improving patient safety, call for the innovation necessary to expedite the work, create significant, sustainable improvements in culture, process, and outcomes, and encourage key stakeholders to assume significant roles in advancing patient safety.

The Institute is named for Lucian Leape, MD, who served as the founding chairman and remains an active member of the Institute. Dr. Leape was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Quality of Care in America Committee, which published the following seminal works in the patient safety movement: To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (1999) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001).

The Institute’s Work

The NPSF Lucian Leape Institute has focused on identifying and framing vital transforming concepts that require system-level attention and action. Five critical concepts identified by the Institute were presented in a 2009 paper Transforming Healthcare: A Safety Imperative, published in Quality and Safety in Health Care (now BMJ Quality and Safety):

• Medical education reform
• Active consumer engagement in all aspects of health care
• Transparency as a practiced value in everything we do
• Integration of care within and across health care delivery systems
• Restoration of joy and meaning in work and ensuring the safety of the health care workforce

Fulfilling the objectives embodied in these concepts is critical to moving the national patient safety agenda forward; it is clear that this will require profound changes in the culture and structure of our health care system. Between 2010 and 2015, the Institute published five reports in its series analyzing these concepts and recommending actions, and in 2016 issued Transforming Health Care: A Compendium of Reports from the National Patient Safety Foundation's Lucian Leape Institute. This compendium brings together the executive summaries, recommendations, and action checklists from the five reports. It is a call to action for health care leaders to inform their discussions, set work priorities, and make what may sometimes be difficult decisions in order to make greater progress toward safer care.

Annual Forum & Keynote Dinner

Since 2008, the Institute each year has offered an event that allows the Institute members to share their expertise directly with participants and to learn and expand their own understanding through interchange with those who attend. Participants in the afternoon segment of the Annual Forum & Keynote Dinner attend breakout sessions led by Institute members, plus a presentation by a distinguished leader in patient safety work. The evening reception and dinner provide lively conversation among members and attendees and a keynote presentation by another distinguished thought leader.
 

Awards Conferred by the Institute

The NPSF Lucian Leape Institute is proud to participate with other entities in granting these awards that help advance safer health care:

John Q. Sherman Award for Excellence in Patient Engagement
The John Q. Sherman Award is sponsored by the NPSF Lucian Leape Institute and Taylor Communications to elevate the innovative work people and organizations from across the continuum of care are doing to advance patient and family engagement. Read more at www.EngagingPatients.org/award.

The Doctors Company Foundation Young Physicians Patient Safety Award
Conferred in partnership with the NPSF Lucian Leape Institute annually between 2011 and 2016, The Doctors Company Foundation Young Physicians Patient Safety Award recognized young physicians for their personal insight into the importance of applying the principles of patient safety to reduce the incidence of medical error. Individuals submitted essays about patient safety events they personally experienced during clinical rotations. Essays were judged by a panel selected by the NPSF Lucian Leape Institute. Visit www.tdcfoundation.com for more information.

Contacting the Institute

The NPSF Lucian Leape Institute has its administrative offices in Boston, Massachusetts, at the headquarters of the National Patient Safety Foundation.

National Patient Safety Foundation
Lucian Leape Institute
280 Summer Street, 9th Floor
Boston, MA 02210
(617) 391-9900
E-mail: LLI@npsf.org
Website: www.npsf.org