Web-based systems approach to improvement of patient safety

According to The World Health Organization patient safety is a Basic Human Right. It has, therefore, formed an Alliance for Patient Safety. The reason is that medical errors are a major cause of harm to patients. The authors support the assertion by the US Institute of Medicine that there can be no quality of care without patient safety. The unique nature of each healthcare setting means that 'off-the-shelf top-down solutions seldom work. The purpose of the work reported here therefore was to develop a bottom-up methodology in which staff is empowered through IT-assisted systems approach. This team-based approach is based upon an Error Reduction Intervention Cycle as follows: (i) an anonymous on-line survey in which all staff in a healthcare setting rate various errors according to their perceived frequency and severity; (ii) identification of priority areas based on hazard ratings derived from the survey results (supplemented by Delphi technique); (iii) development of solutions to the prioritized problems; (iv) implementation of the solutions, and tracking their effect/s, and (v) repetition of the survey for continuing safety-based quality improvement. The tool is highly adaptable for any health care setting. For the purposes of illustration the case of primary care settings, where the vast majority of any nation's healthcare takes place, is presented.