Patient safety incidents cannot be eradicated but mitigated (13 September 2021)

Summary

Working together and maximising the benefits of intelligent technology can have a truly transformative impact on clinical negligence claims, writes Molly Kent, a patient safety specialist at Radar Healthcare, in this HSJ article.

Claims essentially arise out of dissatisfaction, usually with a process, service or poor patient journey. Each claim represents an individual’s story – no two cases will be identical, just as no two patients are identical. Molly argues, however, that it’s when we bring the information from claims together that we can truly learn. Rather than looking at each case in its own silo, we should be building the big picture, and considering things like systems of internal control, human factors, communications, audit and education.