Analysis of Development in Patient Safety Over the Last 15 Years

Abstract

Patient safety is a significant healthcare issue with substantial clinical and economic consequences. The extensive research in 1999 on patient safety stated that preventable medical errors in US were killing as many as 99,000 people per year (Kohn, 1999). This report increased awareness and concern about patient injuries worldwide. The aim of this paper is the analysis of patient safety management development to identify main obstacles and success factors for its improvement, coming from global literature review combined with a case study where 15 hospitals were interviewed on an innovative labelling system. Hospital management is increasingly confronted by governmental, regulatory, and consumer groups to demonstrate organizational safety culture that assures patients safely from medical error. This article helps to understand what really happened or improved regarding patient safety over the last 15 years and may support answer the question ``what can we do to improve patient safety?{''} A comprehensive review of patient safety literature globally. The review was a qualitative meta-analysis from which identified barriers and critical success factors for improvement. This research is underlined by a case study which also shows clear adoption barriers. In the result of analysis of literature review and secondary statistical data main conclusions can be stated such as: 1) The scope of improving patient safety has not made significant progress and further efforts are rare and not centred, 2) several macroeconomic obstacles are still observable end especially in the field of commitment, funding, education, but main attention paid by author of this paper is the analysis of managerial aspects of patient safety on micro-level which is creating the third group of conclusions.