The safety of our patients is a top priority for our physicians and staff. We are consistently evaluating and implementing processes and systems that assure that we deliver high-quality, safe care for our patients.

At UMass Memorial Medical Center, we view safe care as: 

• Eliminating preventable medical mistakes
• Guarding against the impact of human error
• Establishing hospital-wide systems to safeguard patients' health and well-being.
• Reducing human suffering 

Some of our safe care initiatives include:

• Taking a leadership role in educating our employees to make patient safety their highest priority and to follow nationally recognized patient safety guidelines in all patient interactions.
• Helping our patients understand their role in ensuring their own safety.
• Educating our patients about available patient safety resources.
• Encouraging consumers to use quality and safety data when making health decisions. 

Our Patients Have a Role in Safe Care

We encourage you and your family members to take an active role in assuring that your hospital stay is safe and free of preventable medical errors by:

• Being well-informed
• Asking your physicians and nurses about your diagnosis and treatment
• Making sure that every hospital employee providing care to you knows:
  • Who you are
  • What your health issues are
• Questioning anything that does not seem quite right, such as:
  • If a medication does not look familiar
  • If the employee is preparing the wrong part of the body for treatment. 

Get to know your health care team.