Patient safety means that the patient is free from unintentional harm or possible harm to the patient and covers the measures taken by health institutions and those working in these institutions in order to prevent harm to people by health services. Patient safety also means designing to prevent simple errors in processes from occurring in a way that harms patients and healthcare professionals and taking measures to ensure that errors are identified, reported, and corrected before they reach patients and healthcare professionals.

Health care today has become much more complex with the development of technology, the introduction of new medicines and new treatments, as well as increasing economic pressures.

In Europe, preventable and/or undesirable events are encountered in every 10 patients, causing financial damage to patients, relatives/families, healthcare professionals, and hospital management.

Patient Safety is the focus and target point of healthcare services. In this context, in order to prevent medical errors and adverse events and to develop strategies, it is imperative to know all the risks that may lead to medical errors.

A systematic approach to eliminate misconduct in hospitals should include collecting and researching relevant data, developing strategies against problems in the system, and creating a patient safety culture in the organization where errors are reported without fear or hesitation.

Results of Root Cause Analyses in Patient Safety Violations

• Lack of communication (70%)
• Lack of orientation/training (60%)
• Inadequate patient assessment (40%)
• Lack of human resources (25%)

At least 100 patients die every day in United States hospitals due to medical errors.

As a result, corrective actions should be taken to reduce risk, the effectiveness of these corrections should be monitored, and incidents should be reported to identify lessons learned. This will reduce the likelihood of an error recurring in the future and prevent harm to the patient when an error occurs.

Let us not forget;

• Patient safety is not just about medical error.
• Patient safety is not professional incompetence.
• Patient safety is not someone else's problem.

Bibliography

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• İnönü Üniversitesi Sağlık Hizmetleri Meslek Yüksekokulu Dergisi, ISSN: 2147-7892, Cilt 6 Sayı 1(2018)10-19 Ayşe Çiçek KORKMAZ
• Hasta Güvenliği, Türkiye ve Dünya, TTB Fusun Sayek Raporları, Ankara, 2011
• http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Health-systems/patient-safety/patient-safety
• https://physiotherapy.ca/blog/heres-why-patient-safety-important
• Sağlık Hizmetleri Akreditasyonu ve Türkiye’de Gelişimi, Düzce Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Enstitüsü Dergisi / DÜ Sağlık Bil. Enst Derg Journal of Düzce University Health Sciences Institute / J DU Health Sci Inst, ISSN: 2146-443X, 2017, Ö. Güdük, C.H.Kılıç
• Heidi King, Team STEPPS, Team strategies & tools to enhance performance & patient safety AHRQ, 2007