Patient Safety Awareness Week

March 11th through March 17th is 2018‘s Patient Safety Awareness week.
This week is dedicated to focusing on improving patient safety and recognizing that we can all play a part in this effort.

According to the Campaign for Patient Safety 4 out of 10 Americans report to have had a medical error in their own healthcare or in the care of a relative or friend. These errors can include incorrect diagnoses, infections from hospitalizations, medication errors, and much more. Errors can then impact on individual’s physical health, finances, emotional well-being, relationships, employment, education and many other areas of their life. Although there are many procedures and plans in place to reduce patient harm, there continue to be preventable occurrences. As a healthcare community, our part in this effort is to continue to learn more about patient safety, and ways we can reduce preventable errors.
We can also play a role in improving patient safety by speaking up about concerns we come across. Without knowledge of specific concerns, appropriate changes cannot be made. If you discover an error of any kind, please report it to the appropriate professional.

Click here to see more information about the United for Patient Safety Campaign along with additional resources: www.unitedforpatientsafety.org. They also provide resources through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which has recently partnered with the National Patient Safety Foundation to improve healthcare overall.
Together, we can change healthcare for the future and improve patient safety!