Should patient safety be more patient centred?

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Patient Safety
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Patient-centered care emphasizes patient views, experiences, and rights in healthcare delivery.
• Patient-centeredness is increasingly recognized as crucial for safe, high-quality care.
• Current patient safety activities have limited patient involvement, undervaluing their perspectives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose actionable strategies for enhancing patient-centeredness in patient safety.
• To hypothesize that a patient-centered safety culture model improves clinician engagement.

Main Methods:

• The study proposes six areas for action to improve patient-centered safety.
• It hypothesizes a shift from industrial safety models to a patient-centered safety culture.

Main Results:

• Limited patient involvement in current safety and quality initiatives.
• Patient perspectives are often excluded from crucial activities like incident investigation.

Conclusions:

• Implementing a patient-centered safety model is essential for improving healthcare.
• This shift is expected to enhance clinicians' engagement with safety initiatives.
• Valuing patient input is key to advancing patient safety and care quality.