Patient safety: this is public health (2014)

Summary

Avoidable patient harm is a major public health concern. While the public health community has contributed much to one aspect of patient harm prevention, infection control, the tools and techniques of public health have far more to offer to the emerging field of patient safety science.

Patient safety practice has become increasingly professionalised in recent years, but specialist degree programmes in the field remain scarce. Healthcare organisations should consider graduate training in public health as an avenue for investing in the professional development of patient safety practitioners, and schools and programs of public health should support further research and teaching to support patient safety improvement.

Alan J Card discusses this further in his article in the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management.