The Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice

Transforming Patient Care through Research and Innovation to Improve Quality and Safety

First, do no harm.

The Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women's Hospital, led by Executive Director David Westfall Bates, MD, MSc, works to improve the overall quality of healthcare through scientifically proven systems, methods, and practices.

The Safety Problem

We often seek healthcare services at the most vulnerable moments in our lives and we trust our healthcare providers to deliver our care safely and efficiently. However, sometimes healthcare can go wrong. People can and do make mistakes. In fact, according to To Err is Human by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (now the National Academy of Medicine) in 2000, healthcare errors contribute to approximately 100,000 premature deaths per year and over one million injuries in the U.S. alone.

The Safe Care Study, done by the Center and published in 2023, found one in four patients were harmed by the care they received in the hospital. A follow-up paper was published in 2024 and focused on care outside of the hospital. This study showed one in 14 patients experienced harm each year from outpatient care, such as visits to primary care, specialty care, and emergency departments.

The Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston was established to understand how mistakes occur and what systems we need to create to prevent them.

Making Care Safer

The Center's research has resulted in the implementation of numerous practices proven to prevent injuries and errors wherever a patient receives care – in the hospital, at the doctor's office, at the pharmacy, in the home, or in a long-term care facility. Our Center investigators evaluate interventions, systems, and educational and public policies to improve the safety of patients.

Pioneer, Engage, Collaborate

The Center has three primary objectives:

• Pioneer a national patient safety research agenda with new approaches and technologies that builds and supports a patient safety research workforce across primary, ambulatory, and tertiary care settings.
• Engage partners from non-profit, corporate, and government settings to innovate, lead, and educate current and future practitioners.
• Collaborate with leaders in patient safety and healthcare quality improvement to change the culture of healthcare delivery so patient safety is first among the values for all practitioners and health delivery systems.