Health-care providers can improve patient safety by engaging with patients, checking procedures, learning from errors and communicating effectively within the health-care team.

Such simple activities can help minimize costs, while minimizing the harm caused to patients too.


Photo credit: WHO/Sergey Volkov, WHO Media Centre #WHO_051958. © World Health Organization

Content source:
Fundamentals in Patient Safety (WHO, Course handout, p. 1)
http://www.who.int/patientsafety/education/curriculum/course1_handout.pdf
© World Health Organization, 2012. All rights reserved.

In developing countries, the poor state of infrastructure and equipment, unreliable supply and quality of drugs, shortcomings in infection control and waste management, poor performance of personnel, low motivation or insufficient skills and severe under-financing of the health services makes the probability of adverse events much higher.


Photo credit: WHO/Diego Rodriguez, WHO Media Centre #WHO_059725. © World Health Organization 

Content source:
Fundamentals in Patient Safety (WHO, Course handout, p. 1)
http://www.who.int/patientsafety/education/curriculum/course1_handout.pdf
© World Health Organization, 2012. All rights reserved.

Time-poor nurses and doctors who knowingly skip important steps in administering (or prescribing) medication, or a midwife who fails to record a woman's progress because of time constraints, are examples of necessary violations.

Using a systems approach, the entire system of care can be examined to find out what happened rather than who did it. Only after careful attention to the multiple factors associated with an incident can there be an assessment as to whether any one person was responsible.


Photo credit: WHO/Sergey Volkov, WHO Media Centre #WHO_000772. © World Health Organization

Content source:
WHO Multi-professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide (WHO, 2011, p. 102)
http://www.who.int/patientsafety/education/curriculum/en/index.html
© World Health Organization, 2011. All rights reserved.

Time-poor nurses and doctors who knowingly skip important steps in administering (or prescribing) medication, or a midwife who fails to record a woman's progress because of time constraints, are examples of necessary violations.

Using a systems approach, the entire system of care can be examined to find out what happened rather than who did it. Only after careful attention to the multiple factors associated with an incident can there be an assessment as to whether any one person was responsible.


Photo credit: WHO/Sergey Volkov, WHO Media Centre #WHO_000772. © World Health Organization

Content source:
WHO Multi-professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide (WHO, 2011, p. 102)
http://www.who.int/patientsafety/education/curriculum/en/index.html
© World Health Organization, 2011. All rights reserved.

The ICPS framework is a convergence of international perceptions of the main issues of patient safety, to facilitate the description, comparison, measurement, monitoring, analysis and interpretation of information to improve patient care.

The 10 high-level classes are:

1. Incident type; 2. Patient outcomes; 3. Patient characteristics; 4. Incident characteristics; 5. Contributing factors; 6. Organizational outcomes; 7. Detection; 8. Mitigating factors; 9. Ameliorating actions; 10. Actions taken to reduce risk.


Image credit: WHO, The Conceptual Framework for the International Classification for Patient Safety. © World Health Organization.

Content source:
Fundamentals in Patient Safety (WHO, Course handout, p. 4)
http://www.who.int/patientsafety/education/curriculum/course1_handout.pdf
© World Health Organization, 2012. All rights reserved.