Healthcare Excellence Canada blog - Safe-to-say (29 August 2022)

Summary

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), medication harm accounts for 50% of the overall preventable harm in medical care. 

As well as telling the story of Melissa Sheldrick, who has been campaigning to improve medication safety since her son Andrew died as a result of a medication error, this blog looks at how making it 'safe-to-say' can reduce the risk of medication errors. Healthcare systems need a culture shift that makes it safe-to-say when something has gone wrong, is going wrong, or could go wrong. The authors argue that it is only when errors are appropriately managed, reported, responded to and learned from that we can improve the system as a whole, support people impacted to heal and take informed action to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.