Patie ent Sa afety P Progra amme

Our vision r
Every patient re y eceives safe health car every ti me, everyw e re, where.

Who we are o
In 20 002, a Worl Health Assembly Re ld esolution (W WHA 55.18) urged the World Hea ) e alth Orga anization an its Memb States to pay the c nd ber t closest poss sible attent tion to patie ent safet and its associated is ty ssues. The Patient Saf fety Program mme, form merly the Wo orld Allian for Patient Safety, was launched in Octo nce , ober 2004 i response to this WH in e HA Reso olution. Safet is a fund ty damental principle of patient care and a crit p e tical compo onent of qua ality improvement. It embraces nearly all health-care disciplines and actor and thus s e s rs, s requires a comp prehensive, multifacet , ted approac to identif ch fying and m managing actual and potential ris to patie safety and quality of care. Ov the past ten years, p sks ent a ver t , patie safety has been inc ent h creasingly recognized as an issue of global importance but r e e, much work rem h mains to be done. The WHO Patien Safety Pr W nt rogramme has taken t the lead in raising glob awareness of bal patie safety and tackling specific as ent a g spects of sa afety, both in the deve eloping and deve eloped world Major are of oper d. eas rations inclu ude:

promoting in nnovation and develop a ping tools a and solution in patient safety; ns building part tnerships in health car between developed and develo n re d oping countries; ca apacity building to sup pport Memb States i designing and imple ber in g ementing effective sys stems for pa atient safet ty.

An im mportant pa of PSPs global acti art s ion is to bu ild capacity in patient safety in the y WHO regions. Each WHO Regional Of O E R ffice aims to facilitate t o the establis shment and d stren ngthening of patient sa o afety progra ammes wit thin Membe States by identifying er y g country prioritie areas fo regional collaboratio and know es, or c on wledge-sha aring. The Patient Safe Program P ety mme is a de epartment at WHO He eadquarters located in s Gene eva, Switzerland, but works close with pat w ely tient safety focal point in all six WHO ts Regio onal Offices s.

Our mission
The mission of WHO's Patient Safety Programme is to coordinate, facilitate and accelerate patient safety improvements around the world by:

being a leader and advocating for change; generating of knowledge and sharing of experience; supporting Member States in their implementation of patient safety actions.

Key accomplishments since 2004

128 Member States have pledged to reducing health care-associated infection 15 000 health-care facilities mobilized worldwide to take action to reduce infection rates through improved hand hygiene Creation of the world's only global Patients for Patient Safety movement 230 active Patient Safety Champions (patient advocates) across 52 countries advocating for patient safety improvements Development of the first conceptualization for an international patient safety classification Identification of priorities and core elements of adverse events reporting and learning systems First network of patient safety research across developing and transitional Member States Establishment of a first of a kind hospital-to-hospital patient safety partnership programme involving 14 African & 3 European Member States

Implementing standardized patient safety practices (SOPs) in seven Member States Identification of the key priorities in Patient Safety Research Major international studies on the prevalence of adverse events in developing countries published 4300 hospitals registered on the global network of WHO Surgical Safety Checklist users Almost 500 universities and associations worldwide endorsing the Patient Safety Curriculum Guide First network of universities, educators and trainers teaching patient safety across the world Launch of the antimicrobial resistance book aimed at policymakers to encourage further urgent action.

Contact us
WHO Patient Safety World Health Organization 20 Avenue Appia CH - 1211 Geneva 27 Switzerland web site: www.who.int/patientsafety e-mail: patientsafety@who.int tel: +41 22 791 50 60 fax: +41 22 791 13 88