The Spanish health system must improve their systems of notifications for greater safety for the patient, according to the who.

– is vital to develop a safety culture to improve the service to the patients.

– around 10% of hospitalised patients suffer an adverse event involving harm or an extension of your stay

Bilbao, February 2012.- health care that we have today in Spain is very safe ”. So of blunt has been the Coordinator in the program of safety of the patient of the Organization World Health (who), Itziar Larizgoitia, who offered a free Conference and opened to the public in the Bidebarrieta library of Bilbao, within the program encounters with health.

Adds, however, that in the health sector notification systems are still very incipient, in part because it needs to be legal frameworks to protect the notification ”. The security of an institution is measured, according to the expert, on the basis of the monitoring mechanisms which have been put in place, and that not only help to prevent errors, if not also occur, enable to gain always learning for improvement continuous., ensures patient safety specialist.

Thus, DRA. Larizgoitia affects you must also take into account the complaints and suggestions of the patients and, in general, the stories and testimonies of patients who have suffered incidents. These are very important to identify errors and try to design solutions that take into account the particularities and needs of patients ”, concludes the DRA. Larizgoitia. In this aspect, says that there are only around 10% of hospitalized patients who may suffer an adverse event involving him harm or an extension of your stay.

Towards a culture of security

Before a possible human error, DRA. Larizgoitia ensures in the first place that is necessary to acknowledge the problem with transparency, which implies recognizing the problems when they occur, before patients and professionals ”. Adds second that they are developing good practices or safe practices to solve problems that you need to incorporate, as it is already becoming. In this aspect, says that technology is a very important ally by, for example, electronic prescriptions or systems of barcodes for identification of products. However, it considered that it is not enough to solve all the problems linked to prescription or identification of medication errors.

Thirdly, it is necessary to train health personnel in the main aspects of security, although he says the most important thing is to develop a safety culture. According to the expert of who, the essential aspects of a good safety culture are: recognize the problem; want to learn from the mistakes to improve, which leads to actively identify errors, problems, or risk of errors and problems, and to analyse them; wanting to identifying solutions and implementing them; develop leadership in each professional security; and strengthen teamwork, including managers of institutions, who play a fundamental role positioning security as one of the objectives of the Centre, including patients in the analysis of problems and solutions.

The absence of a safety culture is very burdensome for professionals who are involved in an incident because they are culpabilizados ”, ensures the DRA. Larizgoitia. It is considered that professionals are converted unfairly in second victims, since such situations does not acknowledge the multifactorial nature of the incidents. It is important to recognize that to err is human, but health systems can develop mechanisms to protect patients from human errors ”, concludes the who Coordinator.

To greater complexity, greater safety

Medical advances have made that our health system is currently capable of achieving unthinkable achievements only a few years ago ”, ensures the DRA. Larizgoitia. However, it adds that due to the complexity posed by these developments and human imperfection, it is possible that some of the elements or the interactions between them fail sometimes. Is in these cases becomes more necessary than ever to launch the necessary mechanisms to contain the consequences of human error, and ensure it does not impact too much on the patient ”, adds the expert on patient safety.

In this respect, are trying to so identify the unwanted events occurring in hospital practice, and posed harm to the patient. For example, measuring infections transmitted within the hospital ”, ensures the DRA. Larizgoitia. The expert added that voluntary reporting systems can be developed when they occur incidents, regardless of whether affected or not the patient. This last occurs in other industries where is careful much security, as in the aviation or the energy sector, is of great importance and usefulness, allowing to identify problems and learn from them ”, concludes the who Coordinator.