Making patient safety, Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital celebrated World Patient Safety Day on September 17

by Suman Gupta

• The hospital ran a four-day long campaign to promote world patient safety protocols and practices.

• All 2000 employees of the hospital sported orange bands with patient safety message on Tuesday.

Mumbai: In May 2019, 72^nd World Health Assembly appealed the member nations of World Health Organizations (WHO) to observe September 17, 2019 as the first ever World Patient Safety Day. Globally, 134 million adverse events contribute to 2.6 million deaths each year due to unsafe care. Upto 4 out of 10 patients are harmed in primary and ambulatory care services. As a part of the initiative, Nanavati Super Specialty Hospital celebrated the World Patient Safety campaign during September 14, 2019 to September 18.

The campaign started on September 14, 2019 with workshop on Hospital Infection Control to create awareness about importance of infection control in patient safety.

All 2000 staff members of the hospital including healthcare professionals and administrative employees, took part in this campaign by adopting World Patient Safety Day logo and message in email signatures. NSSH employees also took part in a ‘staff attitude survey,’ on patient safety as per WHO assessment standards.

Keeping in mind the theme color of the occasion—Orange, all 2000 employees sported orange bands with WHO logo and message, ‘Committed to Patient Safety.’

September 16, all top clinicians and senior administrators of the hospital recorded short videos about the importance of patient safety, which were circulated across social media platforms for public awareness.

On Tuesday, the hospital organized a hour long symposium to discuss international patient safety goals, national patient safety framework and WHO defined patient safety friendly hospital initiative standards.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr Rajendra Patankar, Chief Operating Officer, NSSH, appealed all to take an oath to create awareness of patient safety and urged everyone, including patients, doctors, nursing staff, paramedics, healthcare administration and policy makers to show their commitment to making healthcare safer. 

“Following patient safety guidelines is to reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to patients during provision of health care. We at NSSH, consider patient safety to be a fundamental part of quality health services. But to ensure successful implementation of patient safety strategies we need clear policies, lots of data to drive safety improvements, skilled health care professionals and effective involvement of patients in their care,” said Dr Patankar.

Dr Deepak Patkar, Director and Head of Radiological Department, NSSH, citing statistics, said even in high income and developed countries, one in ten patients are harmed while receiving care due to adverse events across the world.

“Data suggests, while 30% of these events are life-threatening, 83% can be avoidable. However, we can’t avoid errors by individual perfection but an open and transparent environment where patient safety is not a necessity or responsibility but a culture,” said Dr Patkar. Adding that the observing the World Patient Safety Day may pave foundation to a robust patient-centric healthcare culture.