Patient Safety in Healthcare

Jim Bialick, – President of The Patient Safety Network The World Health Organization recently stated: “There is now overwhelming evidence that significant numbers of patients are harmed from their healthcare either resulting in permanent injury, increased length of stay (LOS) in hospitals and even death.”* Patient safety in healthcare should always be at the forefront of any hospital initiative but what we have learned over the last decade is that adverse events occur not because bad people intentionally hurt patients but rather that the system of health care today is so complex that the successful treatment and outcome for each patient depends on a range of factors, not just the competence of an individual health-care provider.