Action Areas

10 questions that set the tone for patient safety research ?

  • What are the main types of error and adverse event in different healthcare settings?
  • What methodologies would ensure effective patient and consumer involvement to enhance patient safety?
  • What strategies would ensure early detection of new risks before they result in a rare but catastrophic event?
  • How can organisational cultures be achieved that are safety conscious, “reporting-friendly” and free of blame?
  • What methods can reduce error in particular specialist fields of medicine (eg, drug therapy)
  • How can equipment acquisition and management policies reduce risk?
  • What automated methods of data capture could be developed to reduce reliance on human reporting?
  • How can data collation, classification and analysis be enhanced to allow patterns of causation, presentation, detection, and amelioration to be elucidated?
  • What are the characteristics of good leadership of clinical teams that have a good approach to performance in patient safety?
  • Why does change to improve patient safety so often fail to be implemented despite widespread dissemination of strategies which have been shown to work?