Exploring patient participation in reducing health-care-related safety risks

Box 8 .2 . Curricula and CME
Chapter 2, Recommendation 9 – Include safety issues in the curricula of health professionals
» Sufficient attention should be given to patient safety issues in relation to the rights of patients in education
and training curricula for (future) health professionals.
Chapter 3, Recommendation 2 – Educate HCWs on patient involvement in safe care
» Patient participation in hand hygiene could be further enhanced through HCWs’ education, focusing on
promotion and advocacy for patient participation in safe care and using explicit invitations from HCWs as
guidance.
Chapter 4, Recommendation 2 – Upgrade doctors’ communication skills
» This could be achieved by rethinking communication on blood transfusion and upgrading doctors’
knowledge through CME programmes dedicated to communication with patients. The key point is to
listen to patients to understand whether they want to be involved or not. Where possible, the fact that the
patient wants to be involved (or not) and/or to receive information (or not) should be formalized.
Chapter 5, Recommendation 3 – Improve professional competences
» All health professionals should recognize the value of patient involvement and have access to sound basiclevel
and continuing education that covers clinical knowledge and medicine therapies, clinical guidelines,
communication skills, human relationships and safe medication practices. Professional competences should
be regularly evaluated. Information needs of different populations and special groups, such as older people,
children, disabled people, migrants and individuals with low levels of health literacy, should be taken into
account.
Chapter 6, Recommendation 4 – Design an education campaign for health care professionals
» Acknowledging that HCW-related factors contribute to patient participation in enhancing health care
safety, it is important to understand the level of acceptance and readiness of the actors involved to embrace
the new role of the patient. More research could contribute to the real awareness, commitment and
experiences of HCWs and health care institutions in relation to patient safety and patient engagement in
the domain of surgical care.
To articulate and defend patients’ interests in the policy arena, however, patient
organizations should have information at their disposal about what patients find important,
detailing their experiences with safety management. Examples in Chapter 7 show that
it is possible to use patient surveys as a tool to measure patients’ experiences with various
aspects of health care safety. Patient surveys form part of a systematic programme of work
that takes place at regular intervals in several European countries. This is certainly the case
in Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom (England) and the Netherlands.
Patient experience surveys often serve multiple purposes, including use in internal
quality improvement activities. In most countries, however, surveys also aim to provide
comparative information for the public. Delnoij (Chapter 7) recommends publishing the
findings of patient experience surveys because public disclosure triggers professionals
and managers to improve the quality of care and encourages patients to choose safe
hospitals. Legemaate also recommends providing patients with this kind of information
(Box 8.3).
In Chapter 2, public disclosure is defined in terms of patients’ right to information about
the safety and quality of health services. This is an individual right from the patient’s
point of view, but collecting information about performance indicators can best be
realized at a collective level, as the information is not comparable without consensus
about definitions and data collection methods.
Conclusions and recommendations
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