Improving Patient Safety (REL-ACU-0-OT21)

Course overview

Safe, reliable care is the expectation of patients, family, and staff. While it is impossible to eliminate medical errors, that is the goal. In 1996, The Joint Commission established a sentinel event policy; this was done to help healthcare facilities and providers learn from adverse events, which would in turn lead to improved patient safety. Subsequent to the sentinel event policy, national patient safety systems and goals have been established. The Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine defines medical error as "the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim." This course seeks to identify patient safety categories, systems, and goals.