Consumer Information

As a healthcare consumer, you have the right to expect high quality healthcare. One way you can make sure you get good quality healthcare is to be an active member of your healthcare team. Patients who talk with their doctors tend to be happier with their care and have better medical results.

Be an involved consumer. Ask questions at your next medical appointment. Take the time to learn what kind of screening tests a person your age needs. Learn about your condition if you or a loved one has received a diagnosis, and make sure you ask questions about treatment options.

Patient Education Brochures

Title	Download
Reducing Your Risk of Blood Clots or VTE	ENGLISH SPANISH
Reducing Your Risk of Blood Clots or VTE (With Vena Caval Filter)	ENGLISH SPANISH
Catheter Care & Infection Control Staying Safe While Using an Indwelling Urinary Catheter	ENGLISH SPANISH
It's your Healthcare: Be Involved!	ENGLISH SPANISH
Working Together to Eliminate Healthcare-Acquired Infections These precautions are in place to help prevent the spread of infection between patients in hospitals/healthcare facilities.	ENGLISH SPANISH
Heart Failure	ENGLISH SPANISH
Partnering to Prevent Falls in the Hospital	ENGLISH SPANISH
Fall Prevention at Home	ENGLISH SPANISH
Newborn Screening: Protecting Your Baby's Health	ENGLISH SPANISH
Let Nature Take its Course Talk to your doctor, nurse or midwife about the risks of choosing to have your baby early.	ENGLISH SPANISH
Help Us Protect Your Skin Informing you and your family about pressure ulcers and how you can assist your healthcare providers in preventing them.	ENGLISH SPANISH

Other Resources

Six Ways to be a Safe Patient
If you have to go to the hospital, make sure you do everything you can to make your visit as safe as possible. The federal Department of Health and Human Services has a valuable resource to help you do just that. Click here to read about six ways you can be a safe patient.
Ensuring Pediatric Safety in General Hospitals
Speak Up Posters: English | Spanish
Partnership for Patients 2012 Annual Report for Consumers

Thinking About Inducing Your Labor: A Guide for Pregnant Women

Safe Medications During Pregnancy
SBAR Communication Technique for Patients and Advocates
Research Summaries for Consumers, Clinicians, and Policymakers
The Effective Health Care Program creates free research summaries about the benefits and risks of different treatments for different health conditions. The summaries are based on comparative effectiveness reviews that cover health topics suggested by the public.
Be Heart Healthy
The Web site offers a wealth of up-to-date information, advice, resources and links. Through this user-friendly Web site, patients can enroll in a heart failure clinic located by county so they can receive comprehensive follow-up care, search a list of pharmacies that deliver medications and find educational programs and exercise classes.
Thinking About Inducing Labor: A Guide for Pregnant Women
This guide covers what research can and can't tell us about elective induction. It is based on a government-funded review of research reports about elective induction of labor.
Be More Involved in Your Health Care: Tips for Patients
Patients get better care when they talk with their doctor. This short, easy-to-read brochure gives tips that will help you be prepared before, during and after medical appointments.
Question Builder
Be prepared for your next medical appointment. The Question Builder makes it easy to create a list of questions to take to appointments.
Healthy Men
The preventive tests every man should have.
Protect Yourself against Shingles: Get Vaccinated
Almost one out of three people in America will develop shingles during their lifetime. Your risk increases as you get older. People 60 years of age or older should get vaccinated against this painful disease. For more information about shingles, click here.
Simple Steps Can Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections
This resource, available as a podcast or an article transcript, offers simple steps you can take to lower the risk of getting a healthcare-associated infection.