Issue 5 Quality of Care and Patient Safety in Healthcare System
Message from Editor in Chief
Every year, millions of patients suffer injuries or die because of unsafe and poor-quality health care. Many medical practices and risks associated with health care are emerging as major challenges for patient safety and contribute significantly to the burden of harm due to unsafe care. According to WHO, medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems: globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at US$ 42 billion annually. Health care-associated infections occur in 7 and 10 out of every 100 hospitalized patients in high-income countries and low- and middle income countries respectively. Unsafe surgical care procedures cause complications in up to 25% of patients. Almost 7 million surgical patients suffer significant complications annually, 1 million of whom die during or immediately following surgery. Diagnostic errors occur in about 5% of adults in outpatient care settings, more than half of which have the potential to cause severe harm. Most people will suffer a diagnostic error in their lifetime. Data on adverse transfusion reactions from a group of 21 countries show an average incidence of 8.7 serious reactions per 100000 distributed blood components. Radiation errors involve overexposure to radiation and cases of wrong-patient and wrong-site identification. A review of 30 years of published data on safety in radiotherapy estimates that the overall incidence of errors is around 15 per 10 000 treatment courses Sepsis is frequently not diagnosed early enough to save a patient’s life.
Because these infections are often resistant to antibiotics, they can rapidly lead to deteriorating clinical conditions, affecting an estimated 31 million people worldwide and causing over 5 million deaths per year. Venous thromboembolism (blood clots) is one of the most common and preventable causes of patient harm, contributing to one third of the complications attributed to hospitalization. Annually, there are an estimated 3.9 million cases in high income countries and 6 million cases in low- and middle income countries.
This issue highlights the importance of quality care and patient safety. The issue include interview of Dr. Maryam Farooqui, renowned public health expert highlighting the importance of patient safety and effective model for its implementation. Facts on patient safety and overview of global strategies for improving it have been included in the issue. Patient safety resources and tools have are also the part of this issue. Articles highlighting the current scenario of pharmacovigilance and health information management system in Pakistan have also been included. Moreover, real stories highlighting the factors posing threats to quality care and patient safety are also part of the issue.
Contents of Issue
- Message from Editor in Chief
- Researcher of the issue
- 10 WHO facts about Patient Safety
- Global Overview of Strategies for improving Quality of Care and Patient Safety
- Quality and Patient Safety Resources
- Pharmacovigilance as an Effective Tool for monitoring Patient Safety
- Pharmacovigilance in Pakistan: Call for Action
- Health Information Management System in Pakistan: An Insight
- Stories