World Patient Safety Day 2024: many calls to action

Tuesday 17 September 2024. Another year, another World Patient Safety Day. This years theme “Improving diagnosis for patient safety”. 

Last years' report by the World Health Organization https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240095458 first introduced the theme and talked about the need for multifaceted interventions rooted in systems thinking, human factors and active engagement of patients, their families, health workers and healthcare leaders. Improving healthcare processes that will result in improvements to diagnosis requires action at every level of the health system and looking at this years' calls to action https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-patient-safety-day/world-patient-safety-day-2024/calls-to-action leadership is both implied and front and centre.

Focusing on these calls to action, here is what the campaign suggests individuals/entities across a range of settings can do to help improve patient safety in diagnosis. 

Patients, families and caregivers are - be informed, involved, and proactive in your diagnosis

• Be actively engaged in the diagnostic process and with your health care team: share accurate and comprehensive information about your symptoms and medical history; make sure you understand the diagnostic process, your illness’ or symptoms expected progression, and next steps; check your information is up-to-date, and keep track of your symptoms, medical visits, tests and treatments.
• Share your questions and concerns: don’t be afraid to ask questions; speak up, ask about alternative options or seek a second opinion if you need to; share your experiences and contribute to making diagnosis safer for others.  

Health workers providing clinical care - make diagnostic excellence integral to your daily practice

• Keep focussed on the person at the centre of the diagnosis: listen to your patient, ask them about their concerns and tailor the interventions to their needs; take a careful and thorough history and physical examination of your patient; talk openly and empathetically with your patients, and encourage them to ask questions.
• Leverage available technology, tools, and tests to reach a diagnosis.
• Be a good team player and contribute to a safe and collaborative professional environment, where information is shared in a timely manner.
• Keep learning: participate in regular training and seek feedback from your peers and patients; contribute a culture of continuous improvement by sharing best practices, and information about errors and near misses with peers.

Healthcare facility leaders and managers - implement safer systems to improve diagnosis, support your clinical teams and empower patients

• Empower the health workforce through policy, culture and practice: ensure adequate staffing, resources and regular capacity development; make sure quality and well-maintained tests and technologies are available; implement and monitor the use of diagnostic safety guidelines, protocols and practices to ensure errors are minimised; promote a culture of continuous learning and safety, and take action to address problem areas; establish a conducive, collaborative and safe work environment free from distractions.
• Continually seek feedback from patients and their families and reserve space for advocates on advisory bodies.
• Celebrate diagnostic excellence within your teams.

Policy-makers and programme managers - champion diagnostic excellence in health policy

• Prioritise patient safety in policy, legislation and regulation: ensure that appropriate guidelines and protocols to support diagnostic processes exist at a national level and are implemented; provide the necessary budget, staff, training and access to tools and technologies for national health systems.  
• Establish national collaboration mechanisms to sustainably engage stakeholders.
• Promote accountability through monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and ensure health leadership prioritize transparency.
• Set up national knowledge-sharing systems and encourage continuous learning.
• Invest in research into diagnostic errors, patient harm and the development of diagnostic tools and technologies.

Patient organizations and civil society - advocate for quality and safe diagnosis

• Champion diagnostic safety in health policy and practice: work with patients, policy-makers and health care leaders to build health systems that deliver correct and timely diagnosis; facilitate patient advocacy and support their role in promoting and improving diagnostic safety; work with policy-makers, academics, health care leaders, health workers and patients to help identify areas for improvement.
• Contribute to the development of educational and training resources for health workers and patients.

Diagnostics and medical devices’ regulators, manufacturers, innovators and managers - innovate for smart solutions and diagnostic excellence

• Drive research and development for diagnostic tools and technologies.
• Ensure diagnostic solutions meet the highest standards of safety, quality, and reliability.
• Create user-friendly products and instructions and provide regular training for health workers and patients.
• Collaborate with patients, health workers and health care leaders to build products tailored to the needs of end-users.  

I'm a strong believer in the power of campaigns. They act as a tool to raise awareness on important matters and trigger action that will result in change and improvement and there is evidence that they can have an impact on patient outcome. Before the end of 2024 there will be many more awareness days and weeks all of which will use campaigning to get their messages across in the noisy world of health care. It will be interesting to see the evaluation of WPSD 2024. More on this in due course.