Potential for harm due to failures in the EI&K process

Patient safety is improved when evidence, information and knowledge as a continuum are shared in ways that support clinicians in their work, contribute to a culture of patient safety and promote change that improves care. To establish effective sharing of EI&K, organizations need a diverse portfolio of reliable mechanisms to disseminate high-quality EI&K from a wide array of sources. The effectiveness of sharing mechanisms improves as an individual’s communication skills progress in all media: writing, live presentation, and video and audio recording. Technical skill with computers, cameras, recording devices, and web-based tools also contributes to the quality of EI&K. Social media tools enable powerful opportunities for sharing information about patient safety and potentially developing diverse, multidisciplinary communities for distributing knowledge. Social media and the openness such mechanisms allow facilitate the sharing of patient safety stories in a way unparalleled by traditional publishing, information and evidence dissemination modalities. Storytelling deserves special mention as a knowledge-sharing mechanism in patient safety.