IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global leaders in patient safety gathered for day one of the 11th Annual World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit to spotlight the most critical issues affecting patient safety. Held on the UC Irvine campus for the first time, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation’s (PSMF) annual meeting aims to build on progress made over the past decade toward eliminating preventable harm caused by medical error.
After PSMF founder Joe Kiani provided the Summit’s opening remarks, the Patient Safety Global Ministerial Summit recognized him for his work in patient safety. “We recognize Joe Kiani with the deepest respect from the global community of families, experts, policymakers, and politicians in patient safety who have greatly benefited from his unwavering commitment to reducing avoidable harm to zero. His partnership with the World Health Organization, his contribution to the Global Patient Safety Action Plan, his outstanding leadership over many years at the Global Ministerial Summits on Patient Safety, and his drive and determination to ensure the ongoing advancement of science and technology across the global medical devices industries have ensured that our patients at every level and in every setting continue to benefit from his latest advances to reduce avoidable harm. The healthcare world is a safer environment because of his dedication, and both patients and healthcare workers will continue to reap the benefits of his excellence for decades to come.”
“I’m honored,” stated Joe Kiani. “The Patient Safety Global Ministerial Summit, the World Health Organization, and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus have played a leading role in making patient safety a priority around the world. I believe that if we all work together, we have the tools and know-how to create a safer healthcare system for all. To get to zero, we have to implement evidence-based practices, and we need our board members and hospital C-suites demanding their implementation. There is great momentum, and we cannot stop until we reach ZERO preventable harm in our hospitals.”
Since their inception in 2016, the Global Ministerial Summits on Patient Safety have succeeded in raising awareness, as well as creating and sustaining the momentum of the global patient safety movement, as evidenced by the adoption of the WHA resolution (WHA72.6) “Global Action on Patient Safety” in May 2019, which enabled the first-ever World Patient Safety Day in September 2019.
Some of the world’s most prominent leaders in patient safety are presenting at the PSMF’s Summit this year, including Dr. Don Berwick, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvements. In his keynote, Berwick will discuss how to ensure progress on improvements in patient safety remain at the forefront of the national conversation following last year’s recommendations to the US president in the PCAST report, “A Transformational Effort on Patient Safety.”
During the afternoon session, Dr. Craig Umscheid, Director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), will speak on AHRQ’s National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety, which takes a systems approach informed by safety self-assessments to improve patient and workforce safety across all healthcare delivery settings, with a goal of reducing harms by 50% from the pandemic peak in two years.
In her keynote, Dr. Michelle Schreiber, Director of Quality Measurement & Value Based Incentives Group, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will detail the eight goals of CMS’s National Quality Strategy and outline CMS’s efforts to improve healthcare for all by promoting transparency and a safety culture through partnerships, while incentivizing zero harm.
The Summit’s first day will also include presentations from Dr. Diana Ramos, the Surgeon General of California; Dr. Peter Ziese, Head of Medical Innovation & Strategy at PHILIPS; Scott Hamilton Kennedy, an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker; Dr. Evan Benjamin, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; and Henrietta Hughes, the Patient Safety Commissioner for England.
Panel discussions will focus on advancements in using real-time data from electronic medical records, improving safety through systemwide collaboration, and the essential role hospital boards and the C-suite can play in fostering a culture of safety.
PATIENT SAFETY MOVEMENT FOUNDATION
In 2012, Joe Kiani founded the nonprofit Patient Safety Movement Foundation to eliminate preventable medical errors in hospitals. His team worked with patient safety experts from around the world to create Actionable Evidence-Based Practices that address top challenges. Hospitals can make a formal commitment to ZERO preventable deaths, and healthcare technology companies are asked to sign the Open Data Pledge to share their data so that predictive algorithms can be developed to identify errors before they become fatal. The PSMF was established through the support of the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare.
