Vision

A world in which no one is harmed in health care, and every patient receives safe and respectful care, every time, everywhere.

Mission

Promote policies and actions to minimize and, if possible, eliminate all sources of risk and harm to patients during healthcare, with a patient-centered approach, based on science and through strategic partnerships.

Goal

Achieve the maximum possible reduction in avoidable harm due to unsafe health care globally. Time has come to assume that the progress of surgery, the presence of new techniques, the higher complexity to treat diseases and their multidisciplinary management incorporating different actors from other specialties or services, changes in infrastructure, and technological advances generate new challenges for which we must be prepared. Management, non-technical skills (leadership, communication, teamwork, decision making, etc.) and patient safety, are unavoidable topics for surgeons’ training.

How to get started?

▪ The only way to efficiently achieve the goal of patient satisfaction is through a broader vision, evaluating the infrastructure conditions, the expertise of the treating team, the routine use of the surgical procedure to be performed, working according to processes, implementing procedures, measuring with indicators, and analyzing and suggesting measures for improvement.

▪ Create reliable work teams in the services, with welldefined responsibilities and functions, adequate competencies, precise communication, and feedback of performance without using negative comments but rather focusing on the problem to solve it for the empowerment of the whole group.

▪ Analyze the means available to carry out the planned procedures (infrastructure, supplies, regularity, interrelated services).

▪ Establish a patient safety committee, as described in the article.

▪ Train ALL staff involved in patient care, anticipating how they interact during the procedures, which steps to follow, how to communicate, etc.

▪ Create an organizational culture that reports and records AEs, avoid a culture of punishment, foster trust among members, promote anonymous reporting and focus on solving the problem by adopting measures to prevent recurrence. The measures adopted should be thoroughly described so that they can be easily replicated.

▪ Analyze the EFFECTIVENESS of the measures adopted using indicators that objectively measure the reduction of adverse events.

▪ Insist on the concept that surgical services must perform the usual surgical procedures, thereby making it easier to normalize, analyze and draw conclusions.

▪ Patient safety is the most precious value that a healthcare institution must defend.

▪ Bear in mind that with the progress of surgery, individual efforts are not enough. Each surgical procedure is made up of multiple factors including interaction of multidisciplinary teams which often do not know each other. This means that the formation of work teams focused on treating certain conditions requires a level of communication that will be the key to patient safety.

▪ Work with EMPATHY, placing ourselves in the position of patients and looking for the best conditions for their care. If we are not used to the procedure required, refer them to institutions with experience in these diseases.

In agreement with the authors, I emphasize that regular analysis of our practice, error recognition, constructive analysis of causes, working focused on patient safety, and understanding this process as another step towards the professional growth of the team members and of the institution are the new challenges in the practice of surgery in the 21st century.