Patient Safety Awareness Week 2024
Patient Safety Awareness Week takes place March 10 – 16, 2024 and serves as a national education campaign for promoting patient safety practices. The Center for Patient Safety (CPS) supports a global campaign for Patient Safety Awareness Week, sponsored by IHI (Institute of Healthcare Improvement). The theme chosen by the patient safety experts at CPS for this year is Safer Together, emphasizing the importance of safety among the entire team, from the care providers to our support staff to our patients and their families.
FACTS about PATIENT SAFETY
What is considered patient safety in healthcare?
Patient Safety was defined by the IOM (Institute of Medicine) as “the prevention of harm to patients.” Emphasis is placed on the system of care delivery that (1) prevents errors; (2) learns from the errors that do occur; and (3) is built on a culture of safety that involves health care professionals, organizations, and patients.
What are the 5 elements of patient safety?
- Transparency
- Leadership
- Policies
- Validation
- A Just Culture
What are components of patient safety?
The merging of outcomes and causes leads to the development of the components of patient safety, which include the
- state policy
- diagnosis
- medications
- surgical operations
- infections and injuries
What are 7 steps to patient safety?
- Build a safety culture.
- Lead and support your staff.
- Integrate your risk management activity.
- Promote reporting.
- Involve and communicate with patients and the public.
- Learn and share safety lessons.
- Implement solution to prevent harm.
What are the top 7 Patient Safety Issues in Healthcare?
- EHR information safety and integration.
- Hygiene and spread of infections.
- Nurse staffing ratios and burnout.
- Antibiotic resistance.
- Opioid addiction.
- Physician burnout.
- Drug and medical devices shortages.
What are the steps to improving patient safety?
- Maintain Patient Room Cleanliness.
- Practice Proper Hand Hygiene.
- Develop Optimized Discharge Process
- Keep High-Risk Patients Safer With Trained Sitters.
For effective, safe care, we must be able to provide care in a kind and collaborative environment. We encourage you to find ways to engage everyone in the conversation. Encourage patients and family members to be involved in the care process and ask, “How can we work together to make my care safer?” Because we are all safer when we work together.
Respectively submitted by:
Kim Darby RN
Patient Safety Officer
