The Problem With Patient's Safety

Patient's Safety 2011

The biggest problem with patient’s safety, as I see it, is that the public, when describing their care as “wonderful” are usually talking about the nice medical professionals. Nurses who are warm and nurturing, the respiratory therapist who talked about his vacation with the patient or the doctor who loved to hear about the patient’s family may be nice people but may very well not be practicing safe care.

Once in a while I will hear someone say “everyone washed their hands” or “everyone asked me my name and birthday” but that seems to be more rare than regular. We are still talking about hand washing and common patient safety tools like checking that it’s the right patient as if these errors are new. This is old stuff and we should be moving onto newer and more complicated things to save lives.