[Patient safety in Sweden]

This article describes the patient safety work in Sweden and the cooperation between the Nordic countries in the area of patient safety. It depicts the national infrastructure, methods and partners in patient safety work as well as the development in key areas. Since 2000, the interest in patient safety and quality issues has significantly increased. A national study (2009) showed that more than 100,000 patients (8.6 %) experienced preventable harm in hospitals. Since 2007, all Swedish counties and regions work on the "National commitment for increased patient safety" to systematically minimize adverse events in the healthcare system. Also, a national strategy for patient safety has been proposed based on a new law regulating the responsibility for patient safety (2011) and a zero vision in terms of preventable harm and adverse events. The Nordic collaboration in this field currently focuses on the development of indicators and quality measurement with respect to nosocomial infections, harm in inpatient somatic care, patient safety culture, hospital mortality and polypharmacy in the elderly. The Nordic collaboration is driven by the development, exchange and documentation of experiences and evidence on patient safety indicators. The work presented in this article is only a part of the Swedish and the Nordic efforts related to patient safety and provides an interesting insight into how this work can be carried out.