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Consumers have helped motivate changes in health care. Patients and families who experienced adverse events help push reform in how health care systems identify, investigate, report, and share information related to errors. Patients and families who experience health care mistakes leverage their influence to prevent similar events happening to others. Numerous nonprofit organizations have been created in response to adverse events focusing attention on particular care delivery issues as well as broader issues. Many patients or their family members now serve on hospital boards or consumer panels, share their stories in learning situations, participate in health care research, and join improvement efforts in all areas of health care. Helen Haskell provides insight into the role of patients and families in patient safety in Textbox 1.4.

Many organizations now include a Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC; Hatlie et al., 2020). Active engagement of patients and families, especially those who have experienced preventable harm, helps co‐create organizational alignment with quality and safety goals and improve the care experience. Street et al. (2020) found that providers who were dismissive of patient and family involvement missed opportunities for clear communication that prevented errors and delays in treatment. Patients and families, in fact, often “saved the day” by catching close calls.

It is well established that patients and families should be active members of their health care team and participate in shared decision‐making. Neves et al. (2020) examined the impact of sharing electronic health records (EHRs) with patients on the six quality domains in the STEEEP model (i.e., safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and patient‐centeredness). Most frequent was effectiveness, the least were timeliness and equity, and patient‐centeredness was inconsistent (i.e., satisfaction, participation, self‐efficacy, empowerment, or health literacy); overall, sharing the EHR yielded a positive effect.