ABSTRACT
All healthcare safety personnel should understand the importance of patient safety and how it fits into the organization’s total safety system. We need to view patient safety as a discipline within healthcare professions and organizations. Healthcare leaders should consider both the science and practice of safety when addressing patient care issues. Healthcare risk and quality management personnel should learn to view patient safety as a function associated within their disciplines. Patient safety could be defined as preventing patient adverse events and errors while minimizing the harm of those events that do occur. We should approach patient safety effectiveness from two key directions. First of all, consider organizational issues such as leadership, organizational dynamics, operating cultures, and patient care effectiveness. The coexistence of the organizational operating culture and the overall safety culture may be in conflict in many hospitals. They may attempt to operate in parallel dimensions. Second, make patient safety a function of the organization. Educate organizational members that patient safety is not just another program but a subsystem of the total safety system.
