Aligning Patient Safety and Stewardship: A Harm Reduction Strategy for Children.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Patient Safety
• Healthcare Stewardship
• Clinical Quality Improvement

Background:

• Healthcare overuse is a significant issue, leading to adverse events, patient distress, and increased costs.
• Lack of stewardship contributes to antimicrobial resistance, venous thromboembolism, and radiation exposure in pediatric populations.
• Effective stewardship and standardized care are essential for mitigating patient harm.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review patient safety and stewardship concepts in pediatrics.
• To illustrate how these concepts align to improve pediatric patient outcomes.
• To provide clinical examples of reducing harm in children through safety and stewardship.

Main Methods:

• Review of current evidence on healthcare overuse and patient safety.
• Analysis of clinical examples demonstrating the impact of stewardship.
• Synthesis of tools and strategies for standardizing care and improving safety culture.

Main Results:

• Substantial evidence of healthcare overuse and its detrimental effects.
• Identification of specific harms linked to inadequate stewardship, including antimicrobial resistance and increased costs.
• Demonstration that tools exist to standardize care, optimize resource use, and enhance safety culture.

Conclusions:

• Stewardship principles are vital for enhancing patient safety in children.
• Parsimonious care, focusing on necessary interventions, directly improves pediatric patient safety.
• Aligning safety and stewardship practices is key to reducing harm and improving outcomes for children.