Patient safety is a fundamental principle of healthcare. Adverse events can result from problems in various areas of care and improving safety requires a complex, system-wide effort. Ensuring safety involves assessing risks, preventing harm, reporting and analyzing incidents, learning from mistakes, and implementing solutions. Guidelines include proper identification of patients, hand hygiene, medication reconciliation, and fall prevention.

1. PATIENT SAFETY Group 14

4. 10 FACTS ON PATIENT SAFETY FACT 6 In some countries, the proportion of injections given with syringes or needles reused without sterilization is as high as 70%. This exposes millions of people to infections. Each year, unsafe injections cause 1.3 million deaths, primarily due to transmission of blood-borne pathogens such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and HIV. FACT 7 Surgery is one of the most complex health interventions to deliver. More than 100 million people require surgical treatment every year for different medical reasons. Problems associated with surgical safety in developed countries account for half of the avoidable adverse events that result in death or disability. FACT 8 The economic benefits of improving patient safety are compelling. Studies show that additional hospitalization, litigation costs, infections acquired in hospitals, lost income, disability and medical expenses have cost some countries between US$ 6 billion and US$ 29 billion a year. FACT 9 Industries with a perceived higher risk such as aviation and nuclear plants have a much better safety record than health care. There is a one in 1 000 000 chance of a traveller being harmed while in an aircraft. In comparison, there is a one in 300 chance of a patient being harmed during health care. FACT 10 Patients' experience and their health are at the heart of the patient safety movement. The World Alliance for Patient Safety is working with 40 champions – who have in the past suffered due to lack of patient safety measures – to help make health care safer worldwide.

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6. FIRST GLOBAL PATIENT SAFETY CHALLENGE CLEAN CARE IS SAFER CARE The goal of Clean Care is Safer Care is to ensure that infection control is acknowledged universally as a solid and essential basis towards patient safety and supports the reduction of health care-associated infections and their consequences. SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands is a major component of Clean Care is Safer Care.

7. SAFE SURGERY SAVES LIVES THE SECOND GLOBAL PATIENT SAFETY CHALLENGE The goal of the Safe Surgery Saves Lives Challenge is to improve the safety of surgical care around the world by ensuring adherence to proven standards of care in all countries. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist has improved compliance with standards and decreased complications from surgery in eight pilot hospitals where it was evaluated.

9. Equity and excellence: The role of patient safety The Department of Health puts increased safety at the heart of its proposals, emphasizing that the NHS should refuse to tolerate unsafe and substandard care. The supporting consultation document on the development of an outcomes framework also has patient safety as a key focus.

10. Improving Patient Safety Involves assessing how patients may be harmed, preventing or managing risks, reporting and analysing incidents, learning from such incidents and implementing solutions to minimize the likelihood of them reoccurring.

13. This organization would also work with health care organizations to implement corrections in protocols that have already been identified as problem areas through the use of blame free error reporting systems.

14. This organization would also work with health care organizations to implement corrections in protocols that have already been identified as problem areas through the use of blame free error reporting systems.

16. Patient Safety Guidelines Better lighting and less clutter in work areas where medications are prepared, keeping distractions to a minimum, and keeping noise levels down. Drug companies and health care facilities are also standardizing medication labels and packaging. Medications that can have a particularly dangerous effect are being marked as “high alert”. Many hospitals are investing in technology to minimize errors, such as machines that dispense medications for just one patient at a time. Patients are given identification bracelets showing their names and allergies. All medical personnel are required to wear name tags showing their level of training.

17. Unacceptable abbreviations are not used in documentation and the medical record. Two identifiers are checked prior to procedures and medication administration. Physician's verbal or telephone orders are read back to the physician. Medication is labelled appropriately. Hand washing guidelines are utilized. Medications are reconciled by the physician on discharge. Fall prevention. Encourage patient involvement in their own care. Pressure ulcer prevention. Time out procedure prior to procedures requiring anesthesia or conscious sedation. Blood components checked by two registered nurses at the bedside of the patient.

18. Hygiene and Cleanliness "Hand washing" - nurses should wash their hands or use a hand sanitizer before and after each patient interaction.

19. SAFETY MEASURES FOR POST-OP CLIENTS

26. DRUG SAFETY

27. INTRODUCTION Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are those available without a prescription. OTC drugs enable people to relieve many annoying symptoms and to cure some diseases simply and without the cost of seeing a doctor. However, safe use of these drugs requires knowledge, common sense, and responsibility.

28. SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS Safety is a major concern when the FDA considers reclassifying a prescription drug as OTC. Most OTC drugs—unlike health foods, dietary supplements (including medicinal herbs) and complementary therapies have been studied scientifically and extensively. However, all drugs have benefits and risks, and some degree of risk has to be tolerated if people are to receive a drug's benefits. Defining an acceptable degree of risk is a judgment call. Safety depends on using a drug properly. For OTC drugs, proper use often relies on consumer self-diagnosis, which leaves room for error.

29. CONSIDERATIONS IN RECLASSIFYING A DRUG AS OVER-THE-COUNTER SAFETY Has the drug been used for a long enough time so that any harmful effects are fully understood? What harmful effects (including those from misuse) may the drug produce? Is the drug habit forming? Do the benefits of OTC status outweigh the risks?

30. EASE OF DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENTCan the average person self-diagnose the condition that calls for the drug?Can the average person treat the condition without the help of a doctor or other health care practitioner?LABELINGCan adequate directions for use be written?Can warnings against unsafe use be written?Can the average person understand the information on the label?

32. “Ask a doctor or a pharmacist before use if you are taking”

33. “When using this product”

34. The last section lists special warnings for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and for children, with instructions about what to do in case of an overdose.

35. Directions: How much of the drug and how often to take the drug are given for different age groups

36. Other information: Special instructions

37. Inactive ingredients: In addition to the drug, drug products—the tablets, capsules, or other formulations that consumers buy—contain substances added to facilitate the administration of the drug

39. Causes of harm from injections Injections may harm the patient when injection devices are reused in the absence of sterilization. Reuse of injection devices in the absence of sterilization is of greatest concern, since it leads to the heaviest burden of disease. A mathematical model developed by WHO suggests that in 2000, in developing and transitional Member States, reuse of injection devices accounted for an estimated 22 million new infections with Hepatitis B virus (one-third of all such infections), 2 million new infections with hepatitis C virus (40% of all such infections) and 260 000 new HIV infections (5% of all such infections). The infections acquired in 2000 alone are expected to lead to an estimated 9 million years of life lost (adjusted for disability) between 2000 and 2030. Injections may harm health-care workers when dirty needles are not collected in safety boxes. Injections may also harm the community at large when health-care facilities are surrounded by sharp health-care waste – mostly dirty syringes and needles.

42. BLOOD SAFETY

45. MEDICAL DEVICES AND EQUIPMENT SAFETY

46. The devices group in WHO carries out activities to ensure the safety of patients, health-care workers and the community with regard to medical devices and equipment.

48. Quality and safety: elements such as the elaboration of new ISO standards and WHO performance specifications, the pre-qualification of suppliers, the development of standardized procedures for alerts and recalls, and tools to assess safety and performance of products, in order to reduce risks linked to substandard products and procedures.

49. Access: quality management systems covering identification of equipment needs, and the selection, procurement and distribution process. Tools include the development of a model list of essential equipment, the WHO Essential Healthcare Technology Package, guidelines for good donation practices and increased collaboration with industry.