Another air crash and many lives lost. The level of media attention and the resources put into investigating these crashes are not unlike those of other industrial disasters. Then why is it that we do not see an equally interested society when it comes to healthcare disasters taking place daily. The reason I think is that most people do not know that there is such a thing happening. The truth is however disturbing. According to the Institute of Medicine, medical errors are a leading cause of death.So what do we do to tackle this?
I think the fundamental problem lies in patient care quality and patient safety not being a strategic imperative for business planners and hence not an essential requirement in resource management for service delivery. I think the establishment of public monitoring systems could result in a radical shift in healthcare business thinking. This could result in establishment of publicly discernible high standards of patient safety becoming a sought after core competency for hospital planners. However the keywords are 'publicly discernible'.
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