Patient Safety Awareness Week is an annual, National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF)-led education and awareness campaign for healthcare safety. This event is designed to highlight improved patient-provider communication as a vital part of keeping patients safe. NPSF also focuses on efforts to reduce medication errors and lower hospital readmission rates. As the nation's leading voice for patient safety, NPSF's goal for the campaign is to encourage improved patient care through better communication among providers, patients, families, and communities.

Patient Safety Awareness Week, which NPSF has been leading since 2002, is intended to raise public awareness about the work being done to improve patient safety and the importance of effective partnering in these improvement efforts. It is also an effort to directly involve patients and health care consumers in the process of ensuring that health care errors do not occur.

Below is a partial list of outstanding speakers from Capitol City Speakers Bureau who address Patient Safety Awareness and other topics relevant to healthcare professionals:

	Kathleen Bartholomew, RN: Before turning to healthcare as a career in 1994, Kathleen held positions in marketing, business, communications and teaching. It was these experiences that allowed her to look at nursing from a different perspective and speak poignantly to the issues that effect nurses today. Her thoughtful presentations inter-laced with research reawaken every nurse's commitment and love of nursing.
	Emily Friedman : Emily is an independent writer, speaker, teacher and health policy and ethics analyst. She is most noted for her work in health policy, health care trends, health care quality improvement activities, health insurance and managed care, ethics issues for health care leaders, health care for the underserved, population demographics and their implications for health care and the relationship of the public with the health care system.
	Suzanne Gordon : Douglas is a leading health care author, entrepreneur and "eFuturist." He focuses on how teams enabled by electronic and emerging technologies can improve health and medical products and services today and tomorrow. He is the author of 10 books on healthcare management and guides leading healthcare organizations in performance excellence through "Distinctive Innovation."
	John Kenagy : In studying companies that were able to consistently adapt, Dr. Kenagy found common characteristics that could apply to the complex, unpredictable world of the patient. Translating those characteristics to healthcare led to the revelation of Adaptive Design, which clears the way for those in management and at the front line of patient care to share a common purpose.
	Edward Leigh : Edward is sought after by local, regional and national media to offer his insights and opinions to focus on using communication skills to enhance patient care, raise patient satisfaction scores and decrease the risk of medical errors. He focuses on improving communication between healthcare professionals and patients as well as enhancing communication between healthcare professionals.
	John Nance : One of the founding members of the National Patient Safety Foundation at the AMA, John brings a rich diversity of professional training and background to the quest of patient safety and medical practice improvement. A decorated Air Force officer-pilot veteran of Vietnam and Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield, John is a dynamic and deeply dedicated member of the medical community for nearly two decades.
	James Orlikoff : James specializes in health care governance and leadership, strategy, quality and organizational development. He is the National Advisor on Governance and Leadership to the American Hospital Association and Health Forum, and is the Senior Consultant to the Center for Healthcare Governance. He has worked extensively on improving the relationships between boards, medical staffs, and management.