The chapters in this book explore the patient safety managerial structures that exist in countries where there are developed patient safety infrastructures and cultures. The legal structures of these countries are explored and related to major in-country patient safety issues in order to draw comparisons and conclusions on patient safety.

Building on the revolutionary Institute of Medicine reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Keeping Patients Safe lays out guidelines for improving patient safety by changing nurses' working conditions and demands. Licensed nurses and unlicensed nursing assistants are critical participants in our national effort to protect patients from health care errors. The nature of the activities nurses typically perform â€" monitoring patients, educating home caretakers, performing treatments, and rescuing patients who are in crisis â€" provides an indispensable resource in detecting and remedying error-producing defects in the U.S. health care system. During the past two decades, substantial changes have been made in the organization and delivery of health care â€" and consequently in the job description and work environment of nurses. As patients are increasingly cared for as outpatients, nurses in hospitals and nursing homes deal with greater severity of illness. Problems in management practices, employee deployment, work and workspace design, and the basic safety culture of health care organizations place patients at further risk. This newest edition in the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Quality Chasm series discusses the key aspects of the work environment for nurses and reviews the potential improvements in working conditions that are likely to have an impact on patient safety.

v. 1. Research findings -- v. 2. Concepts and methodology -- v. 3. Implementation issues -- v. 4. Programs, tools and products.

Developing best practices and ethical systems to protect and enhance patient safety. Human errors occur all too frequently in medical practice settings. One sobering recent report claimed that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Hoping to reverse this disturbing trend but wondering why it is that things usually go well despite errors, John D. Banja's Patient Safety Ethics lays out a model that advocates vigilance, mindfulness, compliance, and humility as core ethical principles of patient safety. Arguing that the safe provision of healthcare is one of the most fundamental moral obligations of clinicians, Banja surveys the research literature on harm-causing medical errors to explore the ethical foundations of patient safety and to reduce the severity and frequency of medical error. Drawing on contemporary scholarship on quality improvement, risk management, and medical decision making, Banja also relies on a novel source of information to illustrate patient safety ethics: medical malpractice suits. Providing professional perspective with insights from prominent patient safety experts, Patient Safety Ethics identifies hazard pitfalls and suggests concrete ways for clinicians and regulators to improve patient safety through an ethically cultivated program of "hazard awareness."

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

Increased concern for patient safety has put the issue at the top of the agenda of practitioners, hospitals, and even governments. The risks to patients are many and diverse, and the complexity of the healthcare system that delivers them is huge. Yet the discourse is often oversimplified and underdeveloped. Written from a scientific, human factors

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.