September 13, 2019

No one should be harmed in healthcare. And yet...

134 million adverse events occur each year due to unsafe care in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, contributing to 2.6 million deaths annually.

15% of hospital expenses can be attributed to treating patient safety failures in OECD countries.

4 out of 10 patients are harmed in the primary and ambulatory settings; up to 80% of harm in these settings can be avoided.

Patient safety is a global health priority, so the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared September 17, 2019 as the first-ever World Patient Safety Day to create awareness of patient safety and urge people to show their commitment to making healthcare safer

So how can you enhance patient safety?

If you are a health worker or health care leader:

• Engage patients as partners in their care
• Work together for patient safety
• Ensure continuous professional development to improve your skills and knowledge in patient safety
• Create an open and transparent safety culture in health care settings
• Encourage blame-free reporting of and learning from errors

If you are a patient or caregiver:

• Be actively involved in your own care
• It is good to ask questions; safe health care starts with good communication
• Be sure to provide accurate information about your health history

If you are a policy maker:

• Investing in patient safety results in financial savings 
• Invest in patient safety to save lives and build trust
• Make patient safety a national health priority

If you are a researcher, student, academic, or professional institution:

• Generate evidence to improve patient safety, your research matters
• Encourage research in patient safety
• Incorporate patient safety in educational curricula and courses

If you are from a professional association, international organization or foundation:

• Promote patient safety for achieving universal health coverage
• Provide learning and development opportunities for patient safety

If you are a public health advocate or from a patient organization:

• Promote patients’ voices in their own safe care
• Advocate for safety in health care as a requirement

Learn more about this campaign from the World Health Organization here.

At TriHealth, we're already focusing on safety as a priority. Our journey to become a High Reliability Organization is critical for our patients and fellow team members. Visit the Safety and Reliability page and subsections to access these tools and practices.