"Protecting Yourself as a Patient" Goes National Through Osher Network

Patient safety isn’t only the responsibility of doctors, nurses, and hospitals. Patients and families can be powerful partners in preventing harm when they have the knowledge and confidence to speak up.

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation’s (JHF) patient safety course “Protecting Yourself as a Patient” is reaching a growing national audience, with more than 200 older adults across 40 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes enrolling this summer. The expansion represents a significant milestone in JHF's goal to empower patients and caregivers to navigate complex healthcare systems safely. What started as a pioneering program at Carnegie Mellon University's OLLI in Pittsburgh in 2025 has evolved into a national initiative, demonstrating the scalability and universal relevance of patient safety education.

The Osher National Resource Center, which supports a network of 124 OLLI programs across the country, recognized the value of the "Protecting Yourself as a Patient" course and worked with JHF to make it available to their participating chapters. Dr. Hardeep Singh, Inaugural Director of the Safety, Quality, and Well-Being Institute at Houston Methodist and a nationally recognized leader in patient safety and quality research, led the instruction for these sessions, bringing his expertise in diagnostic errors, health information technology, and healthcare system transformation to a diverse audience of older adults.

Dr. Singh was excited to see participants' enthusiasm and shared: “As word about this course spread, we received many queries about whether we were teaching the course again. But when participants started asking how they could become board-certified patient advocates, we realized the course hit a home run. We might just have inspired a new wave of patient safety advocacy.” 

The six-session course covered familiar themes from the original Pittsburgh offering: what is patient safety and its complicated history, practical strategies to reduce risk from medication errors, diagnostic harm, and procedural or surgical complications. Through presentations, videos, and facilitated discussions, each week both a clinical patient safety expert and a patient advocate presented to share tips to equip participants with actionable knowledge and resources to protect themselves and their loved ones during healthcare encounters.

The strong enrollment numbers across multiple OLLI chapters reflect what JHF has consistently observed: older adults are eager for this information and actively seeking ways to become safer healthcare consumers. The response validates what patient safety leaders and JHF have long advocated—that education empowers, and that patients and families are vital members of the healthcare team.

"This is exactly the kind of initiative JHF is proud to support to translate complex patient safety lessons into practical tools people can use to protect themselves and their loved ones. When older adult patients and families feel informed, confident, and empowered to speak up, healthcare becomes safer for everyone,” Danny Rosen, PhD, MSW, JHF’s President & CEO, said.