Patient Safety

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Patient Safety
Medical Topic Overview
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Patient safety is a discipline within the healthcare sector that focuses on the prevention, reduction, reporting, and analysis of medical error that often leads to adverse healthcare events. Recognizing that healthcare errors impact one in every 10 patients around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls patient safety an endemic concern. Indeed, patient safety has emerged as a distinct healthcare discipline supported by an immature yet developing scientific framework.

Overview

Patient safety practices aim to prevent and reduce risks, errors, and harm that occur to patients during the provision of health care. A cornerstone of the discipline is continuous improvement based on learning from errors and adverse events. Patient safety is fundamental to delivering quality essential health services. Indeed, there is a clear consensus that quality health services across the world should be effective, safe, and people-centred. In addition, to realizing the benefits of quality health care, health services must be timely, equitable, integrated, and efficient.

History

The history of patient safety is a relatively new field. It gained prominence in the late 1990s following the publication of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System," which revealed that up to 98,000 people die each year in hospitals in the United States due to medical errors. Since then, patient safety has become a priority for healthcare systems around the world.

Key Concepts

Error Prevention

In healthcare, error prevention is crucial. This involves creating processes intended to prevent errors or catch them before they reach the patient. Common strategies include the use of checklists, standard operating procedures, and safety protocols.

Culture of Safety

A culture of safety involves an organizational commitment to safety at all levels. This includes a willingness to learn from errors and to implement systems that reduce risks. It is about creating an environment where safety concerns raised by staff and patients are taken seriously.

Patient Engagement

Engaging patients in their own care is another important aspect of patient safety. Patients who are more involved in their healthcare tend to have better outcomes and experience fewer safety incidents.

Challenges

Despite the progress made in patient safety over the past decades, challenges remain. These include underreporting of incidents, variability in safety practices across different regions and institutions, and the ongoing need for better safety training and education among healthcare professionals.

Future Directions

The future of patient safety involves the integration of technology, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and patient safety software, which can help prevent errors and facilitate more effective responses to adverse events. Additionally, there is a growing focus on system-wide approaches to safety that transcend individual hospitals or clinics.

See Also

• Medical error
• Healthcare quality
• Patient advocacy

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