Review: Improving patient safety through the systematic evaluation of patient outcomes

Improving patient safety through the systematicevaluation of patient outcomes

"Despite increased advocacy for patient safety and several large-scale programs
designed to reduce preventable harm, most notably surgical checklists, recent data
evaluating entire health systems suggests that we are no further ahead in improving
patient safety and that hospital complications are no less frequent now than in the
1990s. We suggest that the failure to systematically measure patient safety is the reason
for our limited progress. In addition to defining patient safety outcomes and
describing their financial and clinical impact, we argue why the failure to implement
patient safety measurement systems has compromised the ability to move the agenda
forward. We also present an overview of how patient safety can be assessed and the
strengths and weaknesses of each method and comment on some of the consequences
created by the absence of a systematic measurement system.....