Patient safety policies, guidelines, and protocols in Bhutan

The aim of the study was to explore what policies and guidelines related to patient safety have been developed and operationalized in the Bhutanese healthcare system.

The study was conducted as a qualitative exploratory descriptive inquiry using policy and guidelines document review/analysis. Quality care and patient safety policy and guidelines documents were manually collected from the Ministry of Health and three different levels of hospitals (national referral, regional referral, and district hospitals) and reviewed. All data were analyzed using content analysis strategies, and their presentation organized according to the policy statement and/or clause/excerpts on patient safety.

The review revealed that the policy and guidance documents implemented in the Bhutanese healthcare system were developed as a minimum standard for quality assurance, not those of patient safety as such.

The findings of this study reveal that Bhutan is in the middle of a paradigm shift-shifting from a conventional approach of quality assurance to a new paradigm of patient safety. The evidence obtained from this study suggests that the development of high-quality guidance documents is important to improve patient safety in the Bhutanese healthcare system.