Is health care getting safer?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2426

Published 13 November 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2426
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2426

Analysis

Is health care getting safer?

Charles Vincent, professor of clinical safety research¹, Paul Aylin, clinical reader , assistant director ²^,3, Bryony Dean Franklin, director, professor of medication safety⁴^,5, Alison Holmes, director of infection prevention and control⁶, Sandra Iskander, manager¹, Ann Jacklin, chief of service, visiting professor⁷^,5, Krishna Moorthy, clinical senior lecturer, consultant in general surgery⁸^,6

¹ Imperial Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality, Department of Biosurgery and Technology, St Mary’s Hospital, London W2 1NY, ² Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College, London, ³ Dr Foster Unit, Imperial College, ⁴ Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, ⁵ School of Pharmacy, University of London, London, ⁶ Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, ⁷ Pharmacy and Therapies, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, ⁸ Clinical Safety Research Unit, Imperial College

Correspondence to: C Vincent c.vincent@imperial.ac.uk

Despite numerous initiatives to improve patient safety, we havelittle idea whether they have worked. Charles Vincent and colleaguesargue that we need to develop systematic measures

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

Patient safety has been high on the national and internationalagenda in health care for almost a decade. In the United Kingdom,reviews of case records have shown that over 10% of patientsexperience an adverse event while in hospital,¹ ² a figure reflectedin similar studies around the world.³ Considerable efforts havebeen made to improve safety, and it is natural to ask whetherthese efforts have been well directed. Are patients any safer?The answer to this simple question is curiously elusive. Althoughsome aspects of safety are difficult to measure for technicalreasons (defining preventability for instance), the main problemis that measurement and evaluation have not been high on theagenda. We believe that the lack of reliable information onsafety and quality of care is hindering improvement in safetyacross the world.

The principal approach to patient safety in the UK, United States,and many other . . . [Full text of this article]

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 Articles

Breaking the mould in patient safety: Laurent Degos, René Amalberti, Jean Bacou, Jean Carlet, and Charles Bruneau
BMJ 2009 338: b2585. [Extract] [Full Text]

Sensitivity of routine system for reporting patient safety incidents in an NHS hospital: retrospective patient case note review: Ali Baba-Akbari Sari, Trevor A Sheldon, Alison Cracknell, and Alastair Turnbull
BMJ 2007 334: 79. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Adverse events in British hospitals: preliminary retrospective record review: Charles Vincent, Graham Neale, and Maria Woloshynowych
BMJ 2001 322: 517-519. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Explaining differences in English hospital death rates using routinely collected data: Brian Jarman, Simon Gault, Bernadette Alves, Amy Hider, Susan Dolan, Adrian Cook, Brian Hurwitz, and Lisa I Iezzoni
BMJ 1999 318: 1515-1520. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Amalberti, R., Bruneau, C., Desplanques, A., Degos, L. (2009). Viewing the safety imperative from the French policy perspective. Qual Saf Health Care 18: 420-421 [Full text]
Panesar, S. S, Cleary, K., Sheikh, A. (2009). Reflections on the National Patient Safety Agency's database of medical errors. JRSM 102: 256-258 [Full text]
Degos, L., Amalberti, R., Bacou, J., Carlet, J., Bruneau, C. (2009). Breaking the mould in patient safety. BMJ 338: b2585-b2585 [Full text]