Patient Safety

Introduction

Patient safety has become a major concern in the healthcare sector because of the prevalence of medical errors. Patient safety has even stood out as its own ideal discipline and it encompasses certain areas of healthcare service provision such as reporting, analysis and prevention of medical errors (because of the upsurge of medical errors across the globe). Initially, medical errors were not considered a big issue in medical circles until there was an increased trend of medical errors across the globe which resulted into adverse medical events and a high number of patient deaths. This trend prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to carry out an assessment of the impact of medical errors across the globe and established that at least 1 in every 10 patient across the globe is normally affected by medical errors (World Health Organization 2008).

Indeed, in recent years, the world has been shocked by medical documentaries exposing the prevalence of medical error and its ability to cause adverse medical events. For instance in April 1982, America was treated to a very shocking documentary titled the deep sleep that showed the number and kinds of medical errors that occurred as a result of anesthesia accidents that were estimated to affect approximately 6,000 American patients who later suffered brain damage or other adverse medical events (Ellison 2011). The same concern has also been registered in Britain and Australia where patient safety was brought into sharp focus by the Royal Society of Medicine, Harvard medical school (in Britain) and the Australia patient safety foundation (in Australia) (Ellison 2011). In Australia, its is estimated that approximately 18,000 of medical deaths are as a result of medical ...

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...ort his or her colleague. This provision is often not adhered to.

There is adequate research evidenced from a number of medical studies to suggest that doctors’ professional values are normally influenced by external factors. This fact supports several growing literatures supporting a change in the external medical environment to reduce instances of medical errors. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd affirms that “We believe that as well as promoting high standards of behavior from within their own professional societies, it is important for doctors to advocate for healthcare system reforms that facilitate high standards of behavior” (BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2011, 19). However, the call to reform the healthcare sector is deemed to be an internal affair as many doctors across the globe are pressured to improve existing healthcare systems to reduce chances of medical errors.