Alo Yeditepe
World Patient Safety Day
World Patient Safety Day September 17, 2025
“Patient Safety from the Start”
Every child has the right to safe, quality, and equitable healthcare. However, newborns and young children face higher risks due to their rapid development, changing health needs, and different disease patterns. They need adults to make decisions and advocate for their rights. They may also face additional challenges, such as not being able to access the care they need due to their families' socioeconomic circumstances. These factors make them more vulnerable to harm when care and treatment services are not tailored specifically to their health conditions.
While the frequency of reported adverse events in newborns and children receiving medical care varies, it is known that adverse events occur in all care settings, with a higher risk in intensive care units. To draw attention to this critical issue, the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the theme for World Patient Safety Day 2025 as “Safe care for every newborn and every child.” This theme emphasizes the need for stronger measures to protect children from preventable harm in healthcare services.
“Patient safety from the very beginning!” is the slogan for World Patient Safety Day 2025, which serves as a global call to eliminate preventable harm and ensure every child has a healthy future throughout their life.
SAFE CARE FOR EVERY NEWBORN AND EVERY CHILD
Ensuring safety in the care of children is possible through strong practices in key areas such as medication safety, diagnostic accuracy, immunization safety, infection prevention, early recognition of clinical deterioration, and prevention of falls and injuries.
KEY AREAS OF PATIENT SAFETY IN CHILDREN AND NEWBORNS
Patient Identification Verification: Newborns and young children are unable to identify themselves, which increases the risk of identification errors. Therefore, identification verification is the first and indispensable step in safe care. Ensuring that the correct treatment and care is administered to the correct infant/child before each procedure is critical to patient safety.
Medication Safety: Even small dosage differences in children and newborns can lead to serious risks. Therefore, the principles of the right patient–right medication–right dose–right time–right route and the double-check process are vital in every treatment.
Diagnostic Accuracy: Symptoms of illness in children, and especially in newborns, are often different from those in adults and can be more difficult to detect. This increases the risk of incorrect or delayed diagnosis. Accurate and timely diagnosis ensures that appropriate treatment is started and prevents unnecessary interventions. In addition, parents closely observing changes in their children and sharing them with the healthcare team contributes significantly to the diagnostic process.
Prevention of Infections: Newborns and children are vulnerable to infections because their immune systems are not yet fully developed. Meticulous implementation of hand hygiene, isolation measures, and immunization processes reduces the risk of infection for children in hospital and home environments.
Immunization Safety: Timely and correct administration of vaccines in newborns and children helps prevent serious diseases and protects both the child's health and public health.
Fall and Injury Prevention: Newborns and young children are at high risk of falls and injuries because they are in the process of developing motor skills. Falls can lead to serious injuries and complications. Taking appropriate precautions in hospital and home environments reduces these risks by providing a safe care and living environment.
Early Detection of Clinical Deterioration: Changes in the health status of newborns and children can progress rapidly. Early warning systems and continuous monitoring ensure that problems are detected in a timely manner and help prevent potential complications.
Family and Caregiver Involvement: Because newborns and children cannot express their own health, the observations of families and caregivers are critically important. Their active participation in the process, noticing changes, and providing feedback directly contributes to ensuring safe care.
Reporting Safety Incidents: Even a single safety incident can have long-term effects on a child's health and development. Therefore, timely and accurate reporting of all incidents related to the patient safety process, including near misses that did not affect the patient, helps identify risks, take precautions, and strengthen a culture of safe care.
OUR GOALS
Increase Safe Care: Raise awareness and continuously implement safe practices throughout all care processes to strengthen safety in child and newborn care.
Provide Individualized Care: Ensure that care is provided in a manner appropriate to each child, taking into account their age, weight, developmental level, medical needs, and special circumstances.
Supporting Family and Child Participation: Empowering parents, caregivers, and children regarding patient safety; encouraging their active participation in education, awareness, and care processes to ensure they are part of safe care.
Effective Teamwork and Communication: Ensuring effective communication and collaboration among all healthcare professionals involved in the child's care; sharing risks and early warning signs in a timely manner.
Education and Awareness: Continuously educating our healthcare workers on safe practices in child and newborn care, precautions against medication and diagnostic errors, and infection control.
Technology and System Use: Integrate advanced technology and decision support mechanisms into our systems to improve safe care processes.
Supporting a Culture of Safety: Foster a culture within our healthcare organization that encourages voluntary reporting of near misses and errors; one that focuses on continuous improvement and learning from mistakes rather than blame.
PATIENT SAFETY IS OUR PRIORITY from the start and throughout lıfe
We aim to ensure that every newborn and child receives equal, appropriate, safe, and quality care; we support them in gaining lifelong healthy and safe care experiences.
“Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety”
This year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced the theme of World Patient Safety Day as ‘Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety’. This theme, which stands out with the slogan ‘Get it right, make it safe’, emphasises the importance of accurate, timely and safe diagnosis in healthcare services.
Diagnostic errors can cause serious harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment and providing unnecessary or harmful treatment. Therefore, improving diagnostic processes is critical for patient safety
Diagnostic Errors?
Delayed Diagnosis: Damage caused by failure to diagnose the disease in the early stages..
Misdiagnosis: Improper treatment of the patient due to misdiagnosis.
Missed Diagnosis: Failure to diagnose the disease and therefore failure to treat it. Correct diagnosis is very important to determine the right treatment. An incorrect or delayed diagnosis can lead to the patient not receiving the necessary medical care in time, which can lead to further health problems or complications. Unnecessary treatment or the prescription of non-essential medication can lead to significant health risks.
That's an accurate diagnosis,
It enables early detection of diseases. This can help treat serious health problems at an early stage, which increases the chances of recovery and reduces healthcare costs.
Helps to use resources more efficiently. Elements such as time, staff, equipment and financial resources can be used more effectively when the diagnosis is correct.
It helps patients to maintain trust in the health system and health professionals. Loss of trust leads to uncertainty, dissatisfaction and less adherence to medical instructions. When patients realise that their diagnosis is correct, they are more willing to actively participate in their own health care. This includes following treatment plans, implementing lifestyle changes and co-operating with the treatment team.
OUR GOALS
Reducing Diagnostic Errors: Raising awareness and integrating the diagnostic safety process into our procedures to reduce diagnostic errors.
Ensuring Diagnostic Safety: To emphasise the importance of accurate, timely and safe diagnosis at all levels of health services we provide.
Patient and Family Participation: Ensuring the active participation of patients and families in diagnostic processes and taking their opinions and feedback into consideration.
Effective Teamwork / Communication: To ensure effective communication and co-operation between health professionals involved in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Training and Awareness: To provide training to our healthcare professionals on the safety and importance of diagnosis.
Technology Usage: Integrating advanced technology solutions into our systems to improve diagnostic processes, utilising decision support mechanisms.
Ensuring Safety Culture: To make a culture that encourages voluntary reporting of diagnostic errors or near misses, away from blame and punishment, learning from mistakes and developing approaches to reduce them, part of the organisation.
We care about and improve diagnostic safety to ensure that our patients receive the right and safe treatment and care services.
We are stronger together.
