Every Day is Patient Safety Day

Total Quality Management (TQM) Cell organized a seminar on ‘Patient Safety Awareness Day-2016’ at IIMCT-Pakistan Railway Hospital on 9th of December 2016. Now at IIMCT-PRH, the every day is  considered as patient safety day to ensure the provision of safe healthcare to the patients.

The opening note for the inception of seminar on “Patient Safety’ delivered by Manzoor Ahmad Awan, Manager Total Quality Management. In the opening note, the objectives of seminar, importance of patient health care quality & patient safety, top 10 medical errors, evaluation of quality & safety, and commitment of leadership & future strategic plan for the delivery of safe health care to patients were highlighted.

Dr. Tabinda Zaman, Medical Superintendent of MaxHealth Hospital, Islamabad addressed the participants on ‘need & importance of patient safety’, ‘patient safety culture’, ‘smart data management including root cause analysis & shared decision making’, ‘work place engagement and Team STEPPS methodology’, and ‘patient engagement’. In addition to this, Dr. Tabinda Zaman, emphasized that we all health care and non-health care professional must play our roles in ensuing the ‘every day is a patient safety day’. In the last, Dr. Tabinda Zaman appreciated the concept of TQM cell – united for patient safety.

Brig. (Retd.) Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, Medical Superintendent– Riphah International Hospital DHA-II Islamabad highlighted the ‘patient safety goals’, ‘role of leadership & culture to improve patient safety’, ‘common medical errors, incidence & reasons in health care setting’, ‘frame-wok for the solution of medical errors’, ‘consumer engagement  in patient safety program’, ‘diagnostic errors & delays and their prevention. He also elaborated the important clinical interventions made by the experts to ensure safe care to avoid the cost of harms and injuries.

Dr. Matiur Rehman- a renowned health care quality & patient safety consultant; he highlighted the relationship between health care quality and patient safety very effectively.

He emphasized on ‘relationship between health care quality and patient safety’, ‘International Patient Safety Goals-2016 & indicators’, leadership & culture change to improve patient safety’, ‘health care quality dimensions’, ‘team STEPPS’, ‘patient safety from patient perspective and patient narratives & feedback’, ‘patient-centered care’, ‘clinician support tools for health care quality & patient safety’ and effective communication during care transitions and ‘developing effective quality management system to build blame free culture’.

Dr. Matiur Rehman appreciated the efforts of TQM Cell in developing effective patient safety materials in context of patient safety.

Dr. Bilal Arshad Butt, Chief Medical Superintendent of IIMCT-Pakistan Railway Hospital, Rawalpindi delivered the end note; Exactly! Every day is the patient safety day and we should consider the patient safety as a top priority in our hospitals to ensure the delivery of safe health care services to all patients and their families. The quality of any health care setting is its total system characteristics and without patient safety, there can be no quality of care. It is one of the world’s most pressing health care challenges. The goal of patient safety is to avoid, prevent adverse outcomes emanating from the care processes.

He appreciated the Total Quality Management (TQM) Cell for organizing seminar on ‘patient safety’ and expect TQM cell will continue to organize more seminars in the domain of health care quality and patient safety.