• Patient and family engagement as a patient safety practice (PSP) is an emerging area with few studies evaluating the effectiveness of such engagement in reducing patient harm.
• Two new applications of patient and family engagement to patient safety were identified in this review: patient and family engagement as a part of multicomponent interventions targeting patient falls, and patient and family engagement supported by patient portals and information tools targeting safety more broadly.
• For patient and family engagement within PSPs targeting patient falls, three distinct PSPs were evaluated: Fall Tailoring Interventions for Patient Safety program, Partnering with the Patient falls program, and a patient fall self-assessment tool. These interventions were evaluated in two prospective cohort studies and one pre-post study demonstrating reduction in falls.
• For patient and family engagement supported by technology and targeting safety more broadly, three distinct interventions were evaluated: a patient-centered discharge toolkit to identify and communicate issues with discharge information, a patient portal to identify and communicate safety issues, and an electronic patient safety dashboard. These interventions were evaluated in two cross-sectional studies and one pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT). The patient and family engagement PSP was associated with decreased hospital length of stay in two of these studies, decreased readmissions in two studies, and no difference in readmissions compared with usual care in one study.
• Studies reported that implementation of patient and family engagement PSPs was influenced by staff attitudes and availability, patients’ perceptions and competing priorities, and organizational resources.
• Several toolkits are available to support implementation of patient and family engagement for fall reduction PSPs, while fewer resources are available to support implementation of information technology enabled patient and family engagement in patient safety.

Dukhanin V, Dy SM, Sharma R, Vass M, Zhang A, Bass EB, Rosen M. Patient and Family Engagement. Rapid Response. (Prepared by the Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center under Contract No. 75Q80120D00003). AHRQ Publication No. 23(24)-EHC019-3. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. October 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23970/AHRQEPC_MHS4ENGAGE. Posted final reports are located on the Effective Health Care Program search page.