Patient safety and Quality in Healthcare

People (patient & health worker) safety is inherent in healthcare and is based on co-production.

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

??Medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems: globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at US$ 42 billion annually

??Health care-associated infections (HAIs) occur in 7 and 10 out of every 100 hospitalized patients in high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries respectively.?

??Unsafe surgical care procedures cause complications in up to 25% of patients; almost 7 million surgical patients annually suffer significant complications, 1 million of whom die during or immediately after surgery

Patient safety remains a prominent gap in global health systems as patients around the world continue to experience preventable harm, particularly in low-resource settings.? Patients with invasive or monitoring devices (central lines, urinary catheters, ventilators) or who undergo surgical procedures are at risk of acquiring HAIs. HAIs result in significant patient illnesses and deaths (morbidity and mortality), prolong the duration of hospital stays, and necessitate additional diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, which generate added costs to those already incurred by the patient’s underlying disease. Improving patient safety in today’s hospitals worldwide requires a systematic approach to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). More people with conditions amenable to healthcare die due to poor-quality care rather than from non-utilization of their health system.

COVID-19 has made it clear that patient safety is inextricably linked with health care worker safety. In the first few months of the pandemic, a lot of health care workers got sick and died from COVID-19 due to a lack of appropriate equipment and protective gear—glasses, gloves, masks. Health care workers are a very important group of people to protect. Not only are they risking their lives to save others -- if we don’t have adequate medical personnel, then there’s nobody available to care for patients

If you or a loved one is a patient, be actively involved in your own care. Provide accurate information about your medical history and be sure to communicate openly with your health care team. Ask questions to be aware about your health condition and treatment.

Speak up for the safety of your care! Speak up for patient safety!

If you are a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or health worker, engage patients as partners in their care. Work with the patient to create an open and transparent patient safety culture. Encourage blame-free reporting and learning from errors.

Speak up for patient safety!

Dr Rahul S Kamble

MBBS, MD Microbiology

Diploma Infectious Diseases (UNSW, Australia)

Infection Control course (Harvard Medical School, USA)

International Clinical Tropical Medicine course

(CMC Vellore|Haukeland university|McGill university)

International Vaccinology course (CMC Vellore)

Six Sigma Black Belt (Govt of India certified)

Auditor: JCI|NABH|NABL|CSSD|RBNQA|Texila university

PGDBA|PGDHM|PGDCR|PGDMR|PGDOM|

PGDMLS|PGDIM|PGDHI|PGDBI|PGDHA|CCDHHO

Consultant Clinical Microbiologist & Infectious Diseases

Project Lead - Antimicrobial Stewardship

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