BMJ  2005;331:302-304 (6 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.38562.690104.43 (published 1 August 2005)

Editorial

The patient safety story

Has been told; now it is time to make practice safer

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Investigating and improving patient safety in health care is now an international phenomenon. The establishment of the National Patient Safety Agency in the United Kingdom1 and of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety in the United States2 are prime examples of the prominence given to safety within the wider concept of healthcare quality. No longer can there be any doubt that the most fundamental ethical principle in medicine—first, do no harm—is being taken seriously by a wide constituency. The next step is to embed safe practice into everyday clinical behaviour.

Why is there so much interest in patient safety? Why now? Data have been available on error rates in medicine for at least a decade. Although there had been earlier work in the 1970s, the landmark Harvard Medical Practice study of hospital inpatients was published in 1991.3 Additional studies followed from Australia and other contexts.4 This research . . . [Full text of this article]

-->

Glyn Elwyn, clinician editor of saferhealthcare

Centre for Health Sciences Research, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT
elwyng@cardiff.ac.uk

Janet M Corrigan, president and chief executive officer

National Committee for Quality Health Care, 1701 K St NW, Washington DC 20006, USA


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Safer by design
Alison Tonks
BMJ 2008 336: 186-188. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Tonks, A. (2008). Safer by design. BMJ 336: 186-188 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Learning from the medical errors
Ediriweera B.R., Desapriya, et al.
bmj.com, 9 Aug 2005 [Full text]
Has the Patient Safety Story been told ?
Sharon L. Desmond
bmj.com, 15 Aug 2005 [Full text]
How is the story told
Meindert van der Veer, et al.
bmj.com, 18 Aug 2005 [Full text]
The patient safety story: the post-normal view
David R Ball
bmj.com, 27 Aug 2005 [Full text]
The Australian patient safety story
Diane M McErvale
bmj.com, 27 Aug 2005 [Full text]
How do we know if practice is safer?
Romi Haas
bmj.com, 5 Sep 2005 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ