By Michael W. Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
In this thoughtful and well-written editorial in the Journal of Patient Safety, Olivia Lounsbury, MS (University of Oxford) and her colleagues urge patient safety advocates and clinicians to learn from each other to further their own goals of improving patient safety:
While national contexts differ, the potential for shared learning and collaboration between countries like the United States and United Kingdom is immense.
Lounsbury et. al. invite us to look at national patient safety initiatives, such as:
- Finland’s Client and Patient Safety Strategy
- New Zealand’s Quality and Safety Capability Framework
- UK’s National Health Service’s Patient Safety Strategy
So, this is what I did, and here’s what I found.
Learning from Finland’s Client and Patient Safety Strategy
The goal of Finland’s Client and Patient Safety Strategy is to “be a model country for client and patient safety … [and to] prevent avoidable harm.” Finland says it will achieve this “by training and networking client and patient safety experts.”
The Finnish approach is indeed a good one. Many studies have shown that patient safety training effectively improves patient safety, patient outcomes, and healthcare delivery. In their review, Isha Mistri et. al. conclude:
Patient safety is the center of attention in the healthcare landscape requiring meticulous attention and strategic interventions. Through rigorous evaluation through randomized trials, programs have emerged as crucial in enhancing outpatient treatment and fostering safer patient environments. Training programs play an essential role in cultivating safe environments and minimizing misunderstandings. The dynamic culture of patient safety within hospitals acts as a catalyst, substantially improving quality, performance, and productivity in healthcare. These initiatives enable hospitals to drastically reduce medical errors, improve patient outcomes, and streamline operations. To promote patient safety, staff education and training, effective communication, medication safety, infection control, and emergency preparedness must be addressed to prevent future incidents. We need to ensure collaborative understanding and closed-loop communication between healthcare teams. Despite challenges such as weak organizational culture, practical communication, and resource limitations, the importance of patient safety remains paramount, aligned with improved health outcomes, trust, cost reduction, continuous improvement, and compliance with regulations. Education and training of healthcare professionals emerge as the cornerstones of fortifying systems, equipping them with the skills and mindset to ensure patient safety through collaboration and transparent communication.
Learning from New Zealand’s Quality and Safety Capability Framework
New Zealand’s Quality and Safety Capability Framework also emphasizes the value of knowledge and learning to improve patient safety. However, New Zealand’s approach centers on partnerships with patients and a ‘whole-of-system approach’.
As the New Zealand’s Quality and Safety Capability Framework says:
All people working in health care will have foundation-level knowledge of quality improvement and patient safety. This is our vision.
Enabling all people as consumers/patients to be full participants in the health care team is fundamental to quality improvement and patient safety. This is also our vision and underpins all quality improvement endeavours.
The New Zealand quality and safety capability framework articulates the primary knowledge and understanding that consumers and health care workers need to have, and the actions they need to take, to achieve better quality and safety. It has evolved as a result of a sector request for guidance and direction.
Learning from UK’s National Health Service’s Patient Safety Strategy
UK’s National Health Service’s Patient Safety Strategy also emphasizes knowledge and collaboration saying that such a strategy will save lives and reduce costs:
The NHS Patient Safety Strategy sets out how the NHS will support staff and providers to share safety insight and empower people – patients and staff – with the skills, confidence and mechanisms to improve safety. Getting this right could save almost 1,000 extra lives and £100 million in care costs each year.
I also invite you to learn from what other countries are doing to improve patient safety. As the Lounsbury et. al. editorial concludes:
To effectively utilize the expertise of quality and safety professionals, there is a need for more clearly defined roles that are embedded within organizational safety work. Embedded quality and safety professionals can then facilitate identification of impactful targets and support proportional learning and improvement work. There is much promise for safety advancement amid the changing landscape in the United States, and there is possibility to further accelerate efforts by incorporating international insights into U.S. safety approaches.