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UNDERSTANDING PATIENT SAFETY UNDERSTANDING PATIENT SAFETY

When things go wrong: open disclosure Communicating honestly with patients after an adverse event, or open disclosure , includes a full explanation of what happened, the potential consequences and what will be done to fix the problem. Safe care also involves ta...

teamwork errors Operating theatres have been described as ‘among the most - complex political, social and cultural structures that exist, full of ritual, drama, hierarchy and too often conflict’. In such an environment, systems should seek to prevent error by ...

CLINICAL OUTCOMES, AUDIT AND IMPROVEMENT tients Clinical audit, a function of clinical governance, is the means by which the health care being provided is compared with accepted standards. It allows care providers and patients to know how their service is doi...

COMMUNICATION Professional behaviour and maintaining fitness to practice Professionalism is an important component of patient safety . This embraces attitudes and behaviours that serve the patient’s best interests above and beyond other considerations. Organ i...

Checklists Checklists in the operating theatre environment are now accepted as standard safety protocols since the Safe Surgery Saves Lives Study Group at WHO published its results. The use of a perioperative surgical safety checklist in eight hospitals aroun...

Clinical microsystems A clinical microsystem is an interdependent quality improvement unit made up of a small group of people who work together, usually on a regular basis, to provide care. Such groups are typically multidisciplinary . The patients who recei...

Communicating openly with patients and their carers and obtaining consent A patient-centred approach by medical sta ff , with involvement of patients and their carers as partners, is now recognised as being of fundamental importance. There are better treatment...

HUMAN FACTORS The healthcare setting has become increasingly complex. Patient and societal demands for transparency in defining and justifying treatment decisions impact on all healthcare workers, who need to understand their professional responsibilities when ...