World Patient Safety Day
17th September 2021
Stand up for patient safety
Act now for safe and respectful childbirth!
The World Patient Safety Day is a campaign for all stakeholders in the health care system to work together and share engagement to improve patient safety.
Exchange of experience and networking
The focus of quality-oriented health care is patient safety. Adverse events that are the unwanted result of treatment endanger patient safety. That is why the APS advocates strategies to avoid adverse events. Many undesirable events can be traced back to errors that arise as a result of complex processes involving the division of labor. The most important tool for improving patient safety is therefore learning from mistakes together.
The German Coalition for Patient Safety – Aktionbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V. (APS) – has been contributing its experience and network as a platform for the WORLD PATIENT SAFETY DAY since 2015. The Swiss Foundation for Patient Safety and the Austrian Platform for Patient Safety joined the idea at the time so it was a multi-country day of patient safety right from the start.
The APS would also like to promote networking internationally. The website patient-safety-day.org is intended to share knowledge and experience from a large number of projects and to promote suggestions for expanding and building patient safety internationally.
The APS publishes the results of its projects and makes them available free of charge to all institutions and interested parties in the German health care system. Recommendations for action are an important practical tool. Experts consult in interdisciplinary working groups and create instructions for the implementation of security strategies. Accompanying documents (e.g. information flyers, background brochures) supplement the recommendations for action.
We are happy to provide translations of these recommendations for action on this website.
> Translations in English and Spanish – "Practical Guidance"
> Homepage of the Aktionbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V. (APS) [german]
> Homepage "Welttag der Patientensicherheit" (World Patient Safety Day) [german]
Practical Guidance
publication recommendation
This has never been so clear as during the corona crisis. Infection prevention alone is not enough. Employees need to be protected in many ways: in their commitment to caring for patients, in decisions that need to be made, with regard to their physical and psychological stress.
Health Worker safety is patient safety!
Patient Information
Checklist for the use of health apps
In these guidelines, we offer advice to help you find the right application for you. At the end of each section, we have summarized the key facts. This checklist is intended to help you in choosing and using health apps. The idea is not to just tick all or a minimum number of boxes since these guidelines do not provide an evaluation of the medical utility or scientific accuracy of the information or recommendations provided by health apps. Under no circumstances should an app replace personal medical advice because only your doctor or therapist can evaluate which treatment is right for you.
In these online checklists, we have summarized some key facts to help you weigh up the risks and benefits associated with using health apps on mobile devices such as tablets, smart phones or wearables and also give tips for the safer usage of such apps.
Available in english, french, german and italian
Italiano – Lista di controllo per l’utilizzo di app per la salute
recommendation
Roads to Patient Safety: Framework of Learning Goals for Patient Safety Competencies
A Recommendation by Aktionsbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V. (APS) for organisations and teaching staff in the education and training of health care professionals Prepared by the APS Working Group for Education and Training
> Learn more – all publications "Practical guidance"
WHO campaign
The World Patient Safety Day builds on a successful series of Global Ministerial Summits on Patient Safety pioneered in 2016 at London as well as relentless advocacy by leaders from all sectors – politicians, patient champions, patient safety experts and global public health leaders. The establishment of an annual World Patient Safety Day will give an opportunity to providers, seekers and managers of health care services to join a platform and express solidarity and compassion to make health care safer.
The origin of the day is firmly grounded in the fundamental principle of medicine – First, to do no harm.
For World Patient Safety Day, 17 September 2021, WHO urges all stakeholders to “Act now for safe and respectful childbirth!” with the theme “Safe maternal and newborn care”. Approximately 810 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. In addition, around 7000 newborns die every day, amounting to 47% of all under-5 deaths. Moreover, about 2 million babies are stillborn every year, with over 40% occurring during labour. Considering the significant burden of risks and harm women and newborns are exposed to due to unsafe care, compounded by the disruption of essential health services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the campaign is even more important this year.
Fortunately, the majority of stillbirths and maternal and newborn deaths are avoidable through the provision of safe and quality care by skilled health professionals working in supportive environments. This can only be achieved through the engagement of all stakeholders and the adoption of comprehensive health systems and community-based approaches.
World Patient Safety Day was established in 2019 to enhance global understanding of patient safety, increase public engagement in the safety of health care and promote global actions to enhance patient safety and reduce patient harm.
Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2021:
- Raise global awareness on the issues of maternal and newborn safety, particularly during childbirth.
- Engage multiple stakeholders and adopt effective and innovative strategies to improve maternal and newborn safety.
- Call for urgent and sustainable actions by all stakeholders to scale up efforts, reach the unreached and ensure safe maternal and newborn care, particularly during childbirth.
- Advocate the adoption of best practices at the point of care to prevent avoidable risks and harm to all women and newborns during childbirth.
Lightening up prominent monuments for WPSD
During the continuing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, a combination of virtual and other activities are being planned by WHO to observe and celebrate the Day in September 2021. The signature mark of the global campaign is to light up iconic monuments, landmarks, and public places in the colour orange.
WHO calls upon all stakeholders – governments, nongovernmental organizations, professional organizations, civil society, patient organizations, academia and research institutes – to join the global campaign by lighting up iconic monuments in orange, and organizing international, national and local activities and events on and around 17 September 2021.
Further information can be found here:
The WHO offers also a broad range of campaign materials such as posters, campaign logo, templates for roll-ups and social media frames.
Please visit the WHO campaign site for further information.
Geneva landmark lit up in orange to mark World Patient Safety Day 2019
Events & Lightening up monuments around the World on Patient Safety Day 2019 & 2020
#PatientSafety #WorldPatientSafetyDay
Photo credits: © Nagwa Metwally; Yakob Seman; Joychakr; Nor’Aishah Abu Bakar; M.Zingl I Charité; Bundesministerium für Gesundheit I Gabriela Girnau und Ingo Härtel; KVWL; APS