World Patient Safety Day

17-year football enthusiast Raghav Mehra suffered a serious injury during a game. His parents hurried him to a nearby hospital. After a harrowing series of tests, doctors delivered the devastating news. His right knee was severely damaged and required immediate replacement surgery. 

Confused, worried, and desperate, Ravi's parents quickly agreed to surgery, and Ravi was rushed to the operation theatre. In a heart-wrenching turn of events, a catastrophic error due to a mix-up in medical records led to the surgery being performed on his left knee instead. This tragic blunder compounded the family’s anguish.

Incidents like this are probably a nightmare for anyone visiting a hospital, especially those who require surgery. Ravi’s incident highlights the significance of patient safety, strict protocols, and clear communication to prevent such grave mistakes. The wrong surgery not only delayed the treatment of his right knee but also worsened the condition of his left knee.  

Patient Safety: A Global Challenge & Need 

Healthcare services and the landscape are changing daily. However, new treatments, technology, and other services also introduce new threats to safe care.

Patient safety is one of the most basic and foundational principles of healthcare. Yet, it has emerged as a global challenge. In fact, despite all the advancements in healthcare systems and settings, there has been no substantial progress in reducing patient harm over the last 15 years.

Healthcare safety is very much the need and the right of the patients. It ensures the reduction in errors and harms that could be avoided and lowers the impact of harm wherever possible. 

What is World Patient Safety Day?

World Patient Safety Day, observed on 17th September every year, aims to raise awareness around patient safety and rights. It further calls for worldwide solidarity and action by all its international partners and member countries to upgrade their patient safety settings. 

According to WHO, investing in healthcare quality and patient safety can positively affect patient outcomes, reduce the system's burden and costs due to harm, and improve healthcare efficiency. It can also be crucial in building people's trust and confidence in healthcare systems.² Read on as we discuss World Patient Safety Day, its history, theme, key components, and more. 

World Patient Safety Day: History & Importance 

Recognising the importance and need for patient safety, the 72nd World Health Assembly, in May 2019, adopted a resolution—WHA 72.6 on “ Global Action on Patient Safety.” WHO considers patient rights and safety a global health priority. It was announced as a key component in building robust healthcare systems and achieving universal healthcare coverage. 

This resolution prioritised patient safety as a priority work area of WHO. It also promoted the observance of World Patient Safety Day on September 17th every year. The resolution aimed for patient empowerment with cooperation from member states, international organisations, and involved stakeholders.

Why World Patient Safety Day?

Patient engagement, empowerment, and safety are fundamental to the healthcare system, and there might not be many cases of patient harm. However, brace yourself to come across some shocking figures. This data will also help you understand the importance of patient safety and why we need World Patient Safety Day.

1. According to WHO, annual deaths exceed 3 million due to unsafe care. In fact, for middle-income countries, this figure goes even higher, where unsafe care causes 4 out of 100 deaths.
2. WHO also reveals that of every 10 patients, 1 is harmed in healthcare.
3. The same report by WHO reveals that around 50% of such harms are preventable. Medication errors are the common causes of around half of these preventable harms.
4. The most common causes behind preventable harms are diagnostic mistakes, medication errors, unsafe surgeries, healthcare infections, and mis-verification of patients’ identities and records.
5. Thoughtful investments in patient safety and reduced harm can help improve patient outcomes. Proper healthcare settings and patient engagement can reduce the harm burden by around 15%.

What is the Pledge for World Patient Safety Day 2024?

World Patient Safety Day offers an opportunity to build public awareness and promote cooperation between patients, healthcare systems, decision-makers, and healthcare leaders to boost patient safety. 

The World Patient Safety Day theme 2024 is “Improving diagnosis for patient safety”. It also has a slogan: “Get it right, make it safe!”. This year’s theme focuses on how timely diagnosis can help improve patient outcomes and safety. Early and correct diagnosis is essential to identify a patient's concerns and treat them properly. The theme highlights the importance of enhancing diagnostic safety which can be done by improving systematic and cognitive issues. 

Here, systemic issues include organisational factors, such as miscommunication between healthcare providers and patients, bad teamwork, and more. Cognitive factors include intellectual factors like lack of experience, proper training, and stress. 

World Patient Safety Day 2024: Key Messages

The 2024 campaign of World Patient Safety has a few key messages. Here are some of them:

The First Step to Effective Treatment is Timely and Right Diagnosis

Around 16% of preventable harm is caused by diagnostic mistakes, including incorrect or delayed diagnosis. It is essential to understand that such medical negligence negatively impacts the patient’s results and can lead to long-term disabilities. 

It Is Important To Understand the Process to Reduce Errors

Diagnosis is a step-by-step process involving several steps, such as a patient's consultation, examination, tests, discussion, follow-ups, and so on. Each of these steps should be taken seriously to avoid any diagnostic errors. 

Diagnostic Mistakes Can be Addressed Via Variety of Solutions 

Various solutions are available to address diagnostic errors. First, proper healthcare reforms should be introduced. Healthcare providers should be encouraged to learn and upskill consistently. Additionally, doctors and nurses should have access to appropriate diagnostic tools and a positive work culture. Further, there shouldn't be any bias and patient engagement should be encouraged. 

Diagnosis is a Team Effort

Timely and correct diagnosis is not an individual task. Instead, it requires collaborative effort from patients, healthcare providers, leaders, families, and policy-makers. All relevant stakeholders must engage in diagnostic procedures and improve the situation. 

How Can You Participate?

WHO wants all stakeholders, individuals and everyone to attend the event and make it more meaningful. To raise awareness, it suggests using an orange glow. So, if you want to participate, you may light up a building or any monument and extend your support for patient safety. 

Better Patient Safety, Better Healthcare 

Patient safety is a pioneer and essential step in improving patient results. It builds your trust in your doctors and overall healthcare settings. So, this World Patient Day, take a step ahead and extend your support to patient rights and engagement. Let's make patient harm and diagnostic errors a bygone. 

Care Health Insurance supports patient safety and urges the government and healthcare to implement the necessary reforms and take essential actions. Further, to ensure that in case of any medical urgency, you don't have to compromise your safety because of your finances, consider insuring yourself. 

Care Health Insurance offers customised health plans for families and individuals, maternity coverage, cancer patients, critical illness, and more. You can solidify your financial stance with our Care Operation Mediclaim for severe and long-term treatments. Operation Mediclaim plan offers comprehensive coverage for defined surgeries, as high as ₹2 crores. It also provides various extra features like pre and post-hospitalisation expenses, annual checkups, co-payment benefits, and much more. 

>> Also Read: How to Build a Financial Safety Net with Health Insurance

Disclaimers: The above information is for reference purposes only. Kindly consult your general physician for verified medical advice. The health insurance benefits are subject to policy terms and conditions. Refer to your policy documents for more information.