MEDICAL ERRORS AND PATIENT SAFETY CULTURE – SHIFTING THE HEALTHCARE PARADIGM IN ROMANIAN HOSPITALS

Abstract

Patient safety (PS) is a global concern of national health systems, defined as the patient s right not to be subjected to unnecessary harm potentially associated with the medical act. Reporting medical errors for learning purpose was deeply encouraged by WHO during the last 10 years, as a mandatory step in preventing future errors and increasing patient safety. Aim. The paper aims to analyze the level of implementation of Patient safety culture (PSC) and reporting adverse events in Romanian hospitals, during 2011-2019, in the context of this globally shifting paradigm in healthcare. Materials and methods. The paper is a review of articles published in international databases conducted by the keywords “patient safety” and “medical errors”. A documentation of the statistical data reported by the national health institutions regarding the reports of EA in different national systems was carried out. Results. Passive reporting of the AEs in the national surveillance systems is on an upward trend, but still low when compared to Western European countries. Several prospective studies, on a limited number of hospitalized patients, showed a prevalence of HAIs 10 times higher than that reported (2,8-5% vs. 0.4%). Similar results were found for reported adverse drug reactions and other adverse events. Missing information about who should report, what should be reported, what are the AEs that are useful for learning purposes, what are the consequences of reporting upon individuals and upon institutions are all important causes of a low rate of reporting. Conclusions. Changing the culture in healthcare is a longstanding process, but the results in recent years are encouraging. The popularization of “no blame culture” and “learning by reporting AEs”, increasing communication and teamwork by hospital management and national healthcare institutions will improve patient safety in Romanian hospitals.