Patient safety as a public health problem

Abstract

Patient safety is an essential component of quality healthcare, which is what the general population is constantly demanding worldwide. Consequently, ensuring quality healthcare should not be a matter of clinical interest only but a public health priority so that all actions planned or implemented may have an impact at all levels and ensure intersectoral support to help the population remain safe when seeking and receiving health services. The definition and implementation of patient safety are currently circumscribed to the institutional setting. This article aims to present data that can help put into perspective the existing gaps pertaining to patient safety definition and fields of action, and conclude that there is room to work in public health in order to close those gaps. This requires understanding the complexities of the interactions between determinants of harm outside the physical setting where care is provided. These include community-level work, incorporation of knowledge from other disciplines in order to account for coverage, access and health outcomes, design strategies to counteract the impact that the absence of effective patient and people safety measures have on the general population and, in particular, on people differentially affected by the social determinants of health.