World Patient Safety Day

Theme:
Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety

Slogan:
Safe health workers, Safe patients

Call for action:
Speak up for health worker safety! 

What is Patient Safety?
Patient Safety is a health care discipline that emerged with the evolving complexity in health care systems and the resulting rise of patient harm in health care facilities. It aims to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to patients during provision of health care. A cornerstone of the discipline is continuous improvement based on learning from errors and adverse events.

What is World Patient Safety Day about?
Recognizing patient safety as a global health priority, all 194 WHO Member States at the 72nd World Health Assembly, in May 2019, endorsed the establishment of World Patient Safety Day (Resolution WHA72.6), to be marked annually on 17 September. The objectives of World Patient Safety Day are to increase public awareness and engagement, enhance global understanding, and spur global solidarity and action to promote patient safety.

Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety
WHO will observe World Patient Safety Day on 17 September 2020 and launch a global campaign to emphasize the importance of health worker safety as a priority for patient safety. WHO urges all partners and countries to develop national and local campaigns based on this global campaign, to support and observe the Day around the world to make it successful, and to commit and taking urgent and sustainable action to recognize health worker safety as a prerequisite for patient safety.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled the huge challenges and risks health workers are facing globally including health care associated infections, violence, stigma, psychological and emotional disturbances, illness and even death. Furthermore, working in stressful environments makes health workers more prone to errors which can lead to patient harm.

The campaign aims to mobilize patients, health workers, health leaders, policy-makers, academics, researchers, professional networks, the private sector and health care industry to speak up for health worker safety to improve the safety of health care, and reduce the risk of harm, both to health workers and patients.

Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2020:
•Raise global awareness about the importance of health worker safety and its interlinkages with patient safety

•Engage multiple stakeholders and adopt multimodal strategies to improve the safety of health workers and patients

•Implement urgent and sustainable actions by all stakeholders which recognize and invest in the safety of health workers, as a priority for patient safety

•Provide due recognition of health workers’ dedication and hard work, particularly amid the current fight against COVID-19

Key stakeholders necessary for this campaign
•Health workers who are working in clinical and non-clinical areas at all levels of health care.

•Policy-makers, regulators, parliamentarians, insurance and legal entities, external evaluation organizations (health, labour, environment and security sectors)

•Health care leaders, administrators and managers

•Academic and research institutions

•Patients, families, care-givers, communities and the wider public

•Professional associations, international organizations, developmental partners, labour unions

•Patient and civil society organizations

•Healthcare industry /private sector (e.g., pharmaceutical industry, medical devices manufacturers, IT, digital developers).

10 Facts about patient safety:
1. One in every 10 patients is harmed while receiving hospital care
2. The occurrence of adverse events due to unsafe care is likely one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability across the world
3. Four out of every 10 patients are harmed in primary and outpatient health care
4. At least 1 out of every 7 Canadian dollars is spent treating the effects of patient harm in hospital care
5. Investment in patient safety can lead to significant financial savings
6. Unsafe medication practices and medication errors harm millions of patients and costs billions of US dollars every year
7. Inaccurate or delayed diagnosis is one of the most common causes of patient harm and affects millions of patients
8. Hospital infections affect up to 10 out of every 100 hospitalized patients
9. More than 1 million patients die annually from complications due to surgery
10. Medical exposure to radiation is a public health and patient safety concern

No one should be harmed in healthcare