Improvement Resources

The websites below offer information about organizations and programs to improve the quality and safety of healthcare services in Massachusetts and beyond.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent not-for-profit organization helping to lead the improvement of healthcare throughout the world. IHI works to accelerate improvement by building the will for change, cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care, and helping healthcare systems put those ideas into action.


Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors is a public-private partnership whose mission is to improve patient safety and eliminate medical errors in Massachusetts. The Coalition’s membership includes consumer organizations, state agencies, hospitals, professional associations for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, long-term care workers, as well as health plans, employers, policymakers, and researchers. The Coalition leverages the efforts of all of these organizations to accomplish the shared goal of improving patient safety. The Coalition promotes a systems-oriented approach to improving patient safety, identifying the causes of medical errors, and developing and supporting implementation of strategies for prevention.


The Betsy Lehman Center for Patient  Safety works with providers, patients and policymakers to advance the safety and quality of health care. Visit its website for actionable toolkits and other resources for health care providers, and sign up for its monthly email newsletter for updates on local patient safety news and research. The Center is also building a network of peer support programs to help those affected by a medical error or adverse event.


U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) website includes access to clinical information, research findings, consumer/patient healthcare information, quality and patient safety information, data and surveys.


WhyNotTheBest was created and is maintained by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation working toward a high performance U.S. health system. It is a free resource for healthcare professionals interested in tracking performance on various measures of healthcare quality. The site enables organizations to compare their performance against that of peer organizations, against a range of benchmarks, and over time. Case studies and improvement tools spotlight successful improvement strategies of the nation’s top performers.