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

Exploring patient participation in reducing health-care-related safety risks
152
(a) ensure that complaints, criticisms or suggestions made by patients or their
representatives are taken seriously and handled appropriately;
(b) ensure that patients are immediately informed of an adverse event and of
any events entered into the patient’s medical file;
(c) ensure that patients that have been harmed by a patient safety incident are
entitled to receive financial compensation;
(d) ensure the presence of an efficient and sufficiently capable supervisory
system to identify and manage cases of malpractice;
(e) take into consideration the fact that any incident can have multiple legal
consequences, depending on the nature and severity of the incident and the
causal relationship between the process of care and an adverse event.
J.4. It may appear difficult to establish a patient safety reporting system without
compromising patients’ rights. However, if the public is ready to accept the
presence of a confidential, anonymous, non-punitive reporting system, the
public must be assured that their legal and financial rights will be protected. The
existence of a fair and open complaints system, a just and adequate compensation
system and an efficient and reliable supervisory system will certainly make the
process easier and politically more acceptable. Promoting a “no-blame” culture is
not intended to diminish the effective legal protection of patients.
2 – Council of the European Union, Recommendation of 9 June 2009
From the preamble
(9) Patients should be informed and empowered by involving them in the patient
safety process. They should be informed of patient safety standards, best
practices and/or safety measures in place and how they can find accessible and
comprehensible information on complaints and redress systems.
From the recommendations
(3) Support the establishment or strengthening of blame-free reporting and learning
systems on adverse events that:
(a) provide information on the extent, types and causes of errors, adverse events
and near misses;
(b) encourage HCWs to report actively through the establishment of a reporting
environment which is open, fair and non-punitive; this reporting should be
differentiated from Member States’ disciplinary systems and procedures for
HCWs and, where necessary, the legal issues surrounding HCWs’ liability
should be clarified;
(c) provide, as appropriate, opportunities for patients, their relatives and other
informal caregivers to report their experiences.
3 – WHO draft guidelines for adverse event reporting and learning systems
(1) Adverse event reporting and learning systems should have as their main objective
the improvement of patient safety through the identification of errors and
hazards which may warrant further analysis and investigation in order to identify
underlying systems factors.