The World Health Organization (WHO) states on its website: “Patient safety is defined as “the absence of preventable harm to a patient and reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with health care to an acceptable minimum.”
“Within the broader health system context, it is “a framework of organized activities that creates cultures, processes, procedures, behaviours, technologies and environments in health care that consistently and sustainably lower risks, reduce the occurrence of avoidable harm, make error less likely and reduce impact of harm when it does occur.””
WHO further states: “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 and families in the care process, are all needed to ensure sustainable and significant improvements in the safety of health care.”
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality states: “The breath of the field of patient safety is captured in various definitions. It has been defined as avoiding harm to patients from care that is intended to help them. It involves the prevention and mitigation of harm caused by errors of omission or commission in healthcare, and the establishment of operational systems and processes that minimize the likelihood of errors and maximize the likelihood of intercepting them when they occur.”
The Institute of Medicine states: “The Committee on Data Standards for Patient Safety believes that patient safety should be a new standard for quality care—care that is free of unintended injury from acts of commission or omission, in any setting in which it is delivered.”
The Joint Commission’s mission is “to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value … by setting quality standards, evaluating an organization’s performance, and providing an interactive educative experience that provides innovative solutions and resources to support continuous improvement.” The Joint Commission states that it is “a global driver of quality improvement and patient safety in health care. Through leading practices, unmatched knowledge and expertise, and rigorous standards, we help organizations across the contiuum of care lead the way to zero harm.”
In sum. we suggest that “patient safety” is the establishment, implementation, and exercise of actions, policies, and procedures to avoid people suffering unnecessary harm in the health care setting .”
If you or a loved one may have been harmed as a result of the failure to provide patient safety in the United States, you should promptly find a medical malpractice lawyer in your state who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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