Global Patient Safety Alerts is now available for public

For the first time, patient safety alerts from across the globe will be available in one site, helping prevent harmful incidents from happening again. The Global Patient Safety Alerts, a publicly available web-based platform developed by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute will give frontline health-care providers and organizations around the world access to information on patient safety incidents, from causes to recommendations and solutions. 

Historically, when an incident occurs in one jurisdiction, other jurisdictions are not made aware of the incident, or of the learning that results from it because no global system currently exists to gather and share the information.

"Until recently, limited information has been available on safety alerts internationally" says Hugh MacLeod, CEO, Canadian Patient Safety Institute. "Global Patient Safety Alerts will change that and is increasingly recognized as having the potential to improve performance of health-care professionals, reduce patient safety incidents and therefore improve patient safety."

Global Patient Safety Alerts is a publicly available, web-based platform that will contain indexed summaries and links to over 800 patient safety advisories, alerts, and recommendations on incidents which have harmed, or have had the potential to harm, patients in health-care facilities around the world. The platform will enable the sharing of events, experiences and learning to prevent patient safety incidents from reoccurring.

"I now have access to the learning that has occurred following patient safety incidents in health care organizations around the world. The information will help to ensure avoidance and mitigation of risks to patient safety and support a culture of quality and patient safety," says Kaaren Neufeld, Chief Quality Officer at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

Sir Liam Donaldson, Chair of WHO Patient Safety, who will give a virtual address during the launch, says " The most important knowledge in the field of patient safety is how to prevent harm to patients during treatment and care. Global Patient Safety Alerts will connect the patient safety world in a way it has never been connected before and give us all the opportunity to learn from similarities and patterns in sources of risk".