Patient safety has received increased attention in recent years, but mostly with a focus on the epidemiology of errors and adverse events rather than on practices that reduce such events. Researchers from PCOR and the University of California-San Francisco worked together on a project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to develop an evidence-based compendium of promising patient safety practices for hospitalized patients. The investigators evaluated the level of evidence available in the scientific literature to support specific methods to improve patient safety. The resulting report, "Making Healthcare Safer: A Critical Analysis of Patient Safety Practices" (available at www.ahrq.gov) presents more than 75 strategies aimed at preventing a diverse range of common patient safety problems, such as falls in the elderly, hospital-acquired infections, and adverse drug reactions.