hrvatski

How safe is our health care?

Patient safety is the primary measure of the quality of healthcare. As such, it has become one of the major interests of the healthcare systems around the world. A direct indicator of patient safety is the unintended harm caused to the patient during treatment, such as unexpected death or serious physical or psychological injury not related to the natural course of the patient’s illness. The most common adverse events in nursing care and their most frequent contributing factors are bed sores, patient falls, hospital infections, inadequate hand hygiene practices, and undesirable side effects of medication. Other adverse patient outcomes include dissatisfaction with the care provided or with pain treatment, and lack of information. The American Nurses Association has defined ten indicators of health care quality. Research shows that patients experience adverse events during hospitalisation, which indicates the need to address the problem in order to decrease its incidence in the healthcare system. Errors can be attributed to the system or to human factors. Regardless of their origins, when an adverse event occurs, the system must ensure that all who have been connected to the event in any way are made aware of the situation ; the event must be evaluated and its causes established. Possible mistakes should be used for learning in order to prevent future occurrence of similar events. Patient safety culture is defined as the environment created as a result of individual and group values, attitudes and competences. Its properties such as teamwork, evidence-based medicine, patient-centred care and “true culture” must be incorporated in the organisational work culture. Patient safety includes the efforts and activities undertaken to ensure that all procedures and the environment in which health care is provided produce the desired patient outcome

Care, safety, patient

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