[Strategies for patient participation in continuing improvement of clinical safety]

Strategies for patient participation in quality improvement, as an active part of processes or providing relevant information when asked, have progressed to a great extent for the last few years, influenced by the emphasis on patient-focused care as a key dimension for quality and, lately, by the emphasis on patient safety -a dimension for which the patient contribution can not be ignored. However, these strategies have not been fully implemented and used in most quality management systems. This article aims to make it easier to select the appropriate strategies for a given context, by describing them, grouped in three main themes (mobilising patients for patient safety; promoting active participation of patients in the prevention of safety incidents; requesting and using the relevant information for quality improvement that patients can provide), illustrating them with examples, and pointing out some of the obstacles for implementing them.