Let's Make Every Week Patient Safety Week

A terrific blog authored by Mark Graban offers some sage advice with, "Patient safety should be a priority every week and every day. Education and support for patient safety issues should be ongoing."

We couldn't agree more.

As we mark an end to the National Patient Safety Foundation's Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW), let's vow to make every week (and every day) an opportunity to improve patient safety. This recently launched blog will continue to be a priority of ours with an ongoing focus and key vehicle for increasing awareness. And our technologies and systems (HVA) that dramatically improve hand hygiene compliance, and other critical control benchmarks, are a top priority of ours in providing solutions.

The fact remains, to improve patient safety practices--and significantly decrease preventable medical errors--necessitates communication as much as it does innovation. And with the groundswell of attention, 2008 could be the year that the much-needed change occurs.

Insurers are taking more aggressive measures to improve patient safety by instituting "No Pay" policies on preventable medical errors. Powerhouse organization AARP is focusing more on preventable medical errors through publicity of its recent "Does It Make You Sick" survey that found an alarming one-third of New Jersey citizens have either been affected by preventable medical errors. And the ongoing work from patient advocacy organizations, like IHI and Leapfrog, provide better protocols and more transparency in the industry.

Whether as a result of pressure from the public, press and insurers or from within hospitals, these initiatives help push these attention-needed efforts to the fronts of people's minds...and that's exactly what is needed to facilitate change.

After all, change is what we are all working towards--every day of the year.