General Resources about Quality of Care:
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Questions you can ask to help improve the quality of your care or that of a loved one:
Ask Me 3
Three questions to ask your doctor, nurse or pharmacist.
Consumermedsafety.org
Resources to help prevent medication errors sponsored by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices.
Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care
A research and policy oriented website that documents the variations in health care nationwide. Sophisticated users will find a wealth of information about how communities and hospitals vary on many measures of performance:
http://www.dartmouthatlas.orgA good overview is found on Topic Brief on Effective Care [pdf].
The Empowered Patient Coalition
A consumer site that provides a variety of factsheets, checklists and other resources about patient safety and medical decision making.
http://www.empoweredpatientcoalition.org/The Joint Commission
Speak Up offers a variety of brochures about patient safety and patient rights by the organization that reviews quality in the nation's hospitals and other health care settings. Also available in Spanish.
Information for parents about preventing medical errors in your child's care:
http://www.jointcommission.org/PatientSafety/SpeakUp/sp_peds.htmNational Institutes of Health
Resources about talking to your doctor
http://www.nih.gov/clearcommunication/talktoyourdoctor.htmThe Partnership for Healthcare Excellence
A MA-based non-profit that provides a variety of useful information about getting quality care, including a directory of credible websites and research on health care quality.
http://www.partnershipforhealthcare.org/The Prepared Patient Resources
A set of articles and links collected by the non-profit Center for Advancing Health that provides information about being a patient.
http://www.cfah.org/resources/intro.cfm