Guide for Developing a Community-Based Patient Safety Advisory Council

This Guide for Developing a Community-Based Patient Safety Advisory Council is being made available to readers with the intent that it will provide information and guidance to empower individuals and organizations to develop community-based advisory councils. The information in this guide can help those who seek to convene advisory councils that involve patients, consumers, practitioners, and professionals from health care and community organizations for the purpose of driving change in patient safety through education, collaboration, and consumer engagement. This guide presents a step-by-step approach and provides resources for organizational development and growth in the area of patient-centered care. In addition, it encourages a broader perspective on the definition of patient centered care, to include community collaboration. While this guide specifically addresses patient safety advisory councils, it can also be used to set up patient councils to address other issues in which patients' voices are important, such as developing patient education materials.