NPSF issues 'Call to Action' to create coordinated public health response to patient harm

Instead of the piecemeal, disjointed efforts to improve patient safety currently happening at institutions across the country, the National Patient Safety Foundation called for a coordinated, systemwide effort to improve delivery of safe care in a report published Monday.

"Call to Action: Preventable Health Care Harm Is a Public Health Crisis and Patient Safety Requires a Coordinated Public Health Response" lays out a public health framework for prevention of harm in healthcare.

"We believe that in order to make meaningful and sustained improvement in patient safety, we need to address it within a public health framework," said Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, president and CEO of NPSF. "The Call to Action outlines a multipronged, ongoing approach to systematically monitor, measure and improve patient safety across the continuum of care through partnerships and collaboration among policymakers, healthcare leaders, professional associations and others."

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In the report, the NPSF details a six-part public health framework that involves all stakeholders in the industry, including healthcare workers, hospital leaders, policymakers and patients and families.

The report's six-part public health framework included recommended actions, which are outlined below. See the full report here.

1. Establish preventable healthcare harm as a public health crisis and commit to reducing it.

2. Create centralized national oversight of patient safety, including a wide assortment of stakeholders.

3. Partner with patient and families and engage them in care and root cause analyses.

4. Create a common set of safety metrics that can be adopted nationwide.

5. Identify causes and interventions that work, such as establishing a culture of safety and providing funding for patient safety research.

6. Educate and train the healthcare workforce.

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