Massachusetts hospitals are among the best in the world. The doctors, nurses, and others who work within their walls for you and your family have only your best interests at heart.

Massachusetts hospitals have always been about high-quality care, and that care is evolving. To keep you up to date on what they're doing – and how well they're doing it – Massachusetts hospitals have come together with nursing leaders across the state to introduce Patients First – a sweeping quality-and-safety initiative that demonstrates our commitment to our dedicated caregivers and the people they work for – you.

Patients First ensures that you will have access to information you need to make the best health care choices for you and your family. We're proud of what we've done in the quality-and-safety field to date, but we recognize much more needs to be done. Patients First is the next step forward in the never-ending effort to make Massachusetts hospitals and the care they provide the best in the world.

Patients First is comprised of Massachusetts hospitals and their nursing leaders, represented by the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) and the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives (MONE).

Individual hospitals – 77 at the time of the Patients First “rollout” on January 26, 2005 – have signed pledge cards agreeing to adopt the compact's five-part leadership agenda.

The fifth part of that agenda commits hospitals to “forging partnerships with leaders of business, government, consumer groups, and others to promote access to high-quality, safe care for all. Such efforts include expanding health insurance coverage, sustaining the capacity of the health care system to deliver care, and identifying ways to assist providers of care to obtain and deploy new technologies to advance patient safety.”

So, in effect, Patients First is comprised of anyone – even you – committed to high-quality, safe medical care in Massachusetts.