World Patient Safety Day 2019

Dr Kangjam Lakshmi Devi & Khaidem Beronika Devi *

Definition of Patient Safety by WHO: Patient safety is the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of health care and reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with health care to an acceptable minimum. An acceptable minimum refers to the collective notions of given current knowledge, resources available and the context in which care was delivered weighed against the risk of non-treatment or other treatment.

Every point in the process of care-giving contains a certain degree of inherent unsafety. Clear policies, organizational leadership capacity, data to drive safety improvements, skilled health care professionals and effective involvement of patients in their care, are all needed to ensure sustainable and significant improvements in the safety of health care.

Why WHO established a World Patient Safety Day?

Safety in health systems is a major global concern due to the enlarging numbers of people suffering avoidable harm while receiving healthcare. 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!

On Friday 24th May 2019 the World Health Organization (WHO) Member States from all 194 countries endorsed the establishment of a World Patient Safety Day to be marked annually on 17 September and officially including it on WHO list of health dates.

Recognizing the urgency of the issue, on Tuesday 17 September 2019, health stakeholders from all over the world will come together, united in a celebration of the first ever World Patient Safety Day (WPSD). This is a unique opportunity for patients, patients’ groups, care givers, civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders to join the common cause for safe-patient-centered healthcare as an essential component for the achievement universal health coverage.

The theme for the first World Patient Safety Day is “Patient Safety: a global health priority” and the slogan is ”Speak up for patient safety.”

About the campaign

The World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) is a campaign for all stakeholders in the health care system to work together to improve patient safety.

It is all about getting global healthcare actors involved in:
o Scaling up concerted global action on patient safety
o Putting measures in place to reduce avoidable patient harm
o Sharing awareness in patient safety in care settings
o Raising awareness amongst the public and media on key issues relating to patient safety
o Experimenting new ideas to improve patient safety
o Helping patients to contribute to their own safety

Objectives of World Patient Safety Day

Global observance of WPSD aims to:
o Raise awareness of patient safety issues globally
o Enhance global understanding on the central role of patient safety in achieving Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals
o Encourage development of systems and procedures for the elimination of all avoidable health care related harm to patients, and management of risks in health care
o Encourage governments to commit to and support the implementation of strategies for ensuring patient safety, managing risks and fostering supportive, learning cultures
o Strengthen collaboration and partnerships at global, regional, national and local levels for implementing patient safety strategies and for improving safety of health care
o Highlight specific patient safety themes such as Medication Safety, Education and Training in Patient Safety, Reporting and learning systems, Patient Engagement

Florence Nightingale, a trailblazing figure in nursing, was not only the Mother of Modern Nursing; she was also the Mother of Healthcare Design and Patient Safety. She begins with the following declaration: “It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm”

To increase patient safety awareness and ensure safe delivery of care, Joint Commission International and the WHO conjoint and promote the following six international patient safety goals

The six International Patient Safety Goals are:
o Goal 1 - Identify Patients Correctly
o Goal 2 - Improve Effective Communication
o Goal 3 - Improve the safety of high-Alert Medications
o Goal 4 - Ensure correct Site, Correct Procedure, Correct Patient Surgery
o Goal 5 - Reduce Risk of Health Care-Associates Infections
o Goal 6 - Reduce the Risk of Patient Harm resulting from Fall

NABH: Shija Hospitals is the first NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) Pre Accreditation Entry Level certified hospital in the state. It is the highest benchmark standard for hospital quality in India developed by the Quality Council of India (QCI) based on the lines of International Accreditation Standards.

To comply with NABH standards, the hospital will need to have a process-driven approach in all aspects of hospital activities – from registration, admission, pre-surgery, intraoperative and post-surgery protocols, and discharge from the hospital to follow up with the hospital after discharge. Not only the clinical aspects but the governance aspects are to process driven based on clear and transparent policies and protocols.

In a nutshell, NABH aims at streamlining the entire operations of a hospital. Patients are the biggest beneficiaries from NABH accreditation, as it highly focuses on the patient quality of care and safety. With medical tourism/medical value travel to India gaining momentum, it is essential to cater to this select clientele. The obvious answer to this is accreditation conforming to global standards.

Conclusion: Medical profession is considered a noble profession and the doctors have been always compared and equated next to God. The word noble means that a doctor should have qualities like compassion, caring, giving, sharing, concern, helping, etc. A doctor is supposed to treat a person irrespective of caste, creed, religion, financial status, or social status.

His sole concern is and should be to remove the miseries of the suffering patients. Finally on this World Patient Safety Day, let us all (doctors, nurses, hospice workers, emergency medical technicians, and other trained caregivers) express our solidarity and pledge to provide the best quality care to our patients and ensure their safety.