Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Sociotechnical Aspects: Clinicians and Technology
Lecture:Medical errors
Patient safety
Slide content:Who Is Driving Patient Safety Initiatives? Clinicians Hospitals Regulatory bodiesfor example, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Patients 18
Slide notes:This lecture has shown that patient safety is important and that individuals, systems, and provider organizations need to reduce or eliminate errors in the inpatient and outpatient settings and across the patient care continuum. Several entities are driving patient safety initiatives. Clinicians have taken a major role in providing safer health care, and so have hospitals. Regulatory bodies such as the Joint Commission have been instrumental in hospitals patient safety initiatives. Providers with Joint Commission accreditation include patient safety principles in their organizational policies and procedures. Its also interesting to see that patients themselves have taken over some aspects of patient safety as a consumer phenomenon. The Joint Commission also participates in specific projects aimed at patient safety and reduction of medical errors. One such project is the Wrong Site Surgery Project, which [quote] has the goal to improve the safeguards to prevent patients from wrong site, wrong side, and wrong patient surgical procedures. [end quote] The World Health Organization has also published information around Safe Surgery project practices. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, [quote] The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-41) was enacted in response to growing concern about patient safety in the United States and the Institute of Medicines 1999 report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. The goal of the Act is to improve patient safety by encouraging voluntary and confidential reporting of events that adversely affect patients. [end quote] The National Patient Safety Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was formed in 1997 to create an environment [quote] where patients and those who care for them are free from harm. [end quote] NPSF partners with patients and families, the health care community, and key stakeholders to advance patient safety and health care workforce safety and to disseminate strategies to prevent harm. The publication Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare (PSQH) disseminates information written for and by people who are involved directly in improving patient safety and the quality of care. These are just a few examples of the many industry initiatives focused on the reduction of medical errors and the promotion of patient safety. 18