Fighting a common enemy: a catalyst to close intractable safety gaps

Summary

The shared commitment and responsibility uniting everyone within and outside of healthcare during the COVID-19 has been unparalleled. Prior to the pandemic, this type of shared commitment has been discouragingly lacking for other major healthcare concerns such as patient safety. Reasons for this include organisational leaders who are incentivised to focus on activities essential for reimbursement and quality measurement rather than those involving the promotion of safety culture and implementation of systems-based approaches to improve safety, compounded by lack of clear ownership and accountability to solve long-standing safety challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic is leading to several ongoing impacts on the healthcare delivery system, many of which have patient safety implications. We are witnessing negative effects from delays in care from patients not seeking (or unable to seek) healthcare, patients with complex chronic conditions not having ongoing ambulatory care and new types of diagnostic errors. However, we are also witnessing some early short-term positive effects in selected safety areas where the COVID-19 pandemic has provided a new glimmer of hope.

Singh et al. explore this further in their article in BMJ Quality & Safety.