Focus on patient's role in hospital safety

Encouraging assertiveness can diminish risk in an effective safety culture

By Healthcare Facilities Today


The sharing of the ownership of a safe environment by those who are at risk is a critical component of hospital safety, said Dr. Andrew Agwunobi of the Berkeley Research Group Hospital Performance Improvement in a recent Huffington Post blog. 

Hospitals are adopting this theory to attain the levels of safety of commercial airlines and nuclear power plants by encouraging patients to make efforts to protect themselves. Being assertive is not about being "the patient from hell,"  according to Agwunobi, it's about being the safety net of the "safety culture" - a term coined by the nuclear industry after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Read the article.

 

 



August 29, 2013


Topic Area: Safety


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