ABSTRACT
While many Western countries follow a care-centered approach, the French healthcare system is structured around a "global vision system". Patient safety has never captured the public imagination as an important issue in France. A care-centered safety approach to improving patient safety focuses on the reduction, and ideally the avoidance, of preventable adverse events (AEs), reassuring the public by apportioning blame, and then making efforts to find a solution—whether through system-wide reform or individual professional development. The French National Health Insurance (NHI) system is based on the principle that reducing financial barriers to healthcare access is a good investment for society. In 2002, the Patients' Rights and Quality of Care Act, also known as the Kouchner Act, was passed. This act, which had been actively promoted by patients' associations, amended the Public Health Code and the Civil Code, improving both the rights of patients and the quality of the health system.
