C1 What is new in safety thinking and its implications for health care

C1 What is new in safety thinking and its implications for health care

Format: Talk with questions and answers

The medical system is considerably error prone. Progress has been made through recognising human error, more standardisation, the use of information technology, quality assurance, culture change, and patient involvement. An even greater challenge now arises for patient safety leaders. Human error cannot be totally eliminated. Moreover the considerable variety of patients’ problems calls for an adaptive and resilient medical system that preserves autonomy for the medical staff. The session focuses on new avenues (IT, medical governance, systemic approaches, added resilience) and sees how they can adapt and combine with present strategies to further improve safety.

After this session you will be able to:

• Learn the potential pros and cons of new avenues for patient safety: information technologies, supervisory systems, etc
• Think about a more resilient medical system and the implications for current safety programmes
• Go beyond the idea of changing the safety culture to think of the impact on professionals
• Envision what really makes patients satisfied: towards a new global view on patient safety and intervention safety

René Amalberti, Vice Chief Executive Officer – IMASSA, Resource Specialist Patient Safety, Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS), France; Carol Haraden, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, USA