BENGALURU: The Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations (CAHO) and Patient for Patient Safety Foundation (PFPSF), on Saturday, launched the ‘Patient Advisory Council’ to improve the patient safety in hospitals.
Preventable medical errors are a major cause for breach of trust between medical practitioners and patients, explained Dr Alexander Thomas, Founder President, CAHO. Stating that miscommunication is the reason for 70 per cent medical errors in hospitals, Dr Thomas highlighted the need to involve patients as collaborator in the entire treatment process, and help them identify areas of improvement to reduce medical errors too.
Ahead of World Patient Safety Day observed on September 17, the advisory council was launched in Bengaluru on the sidelines of WHO’s theme “Engaging Patients for Patient Safety”. The council will educate the patients about MRI safety, surgical interventions, anaesthesia, vaccination and geriatric care among other things.
Citing examples of administering improper dosage or wrong blood transfusion, experts said if patients are educated about following instructions in prescriptions, verifying names and expiry dates of medicines, or informed about surgical procedures; it will allow them to intervene at every step, reducing the possibility of a medical error.