Healthcare Quarterly Vol. 15 Special Issue | Patient Safety Papers. 2012. Available from: http://www.longwoods.com/publications/healthcare-quarterly/22827

This special issue of Longwood’s Healthcare Quarterly focuses on improving patient safety. From the introductory editorial:

Patient safety has changed the language of healthcare. Terms such as medication reconciliation, critical incident and safety briefing are now part of the daily conversations of clinicians and managers. These shifts in language reflect larger changes in thinking and working, underpinning the currency of patient safety as a critical component of Canadian healthcare.

This is the sixth issue of Patient Safety Papers, published by Longwoods. The first five issues, published since 2005, presented reports on research studies, demonstration projects and leading practices from organizations across Canada. In this issue, we assess our progress and examine the future. To do so, we asked a selection of patient safety experts from across this country to reflect on critical patient safety initiatives in specific domains.

Articles in this issue cover various aspects of patient safety, including:

• The use of reporting systems to enhance organizational learning and create safer systems
• How teamwork and communication can contribute to patient safety events
• Issues with the implementation and use of the Surgical Safety Checklist in Canada
• Use of Human Factors Engineering (HFE) and the importance of design in improving safety
• Use of innovative work and process design to create safer and more efficient workplaces
• New approaches to decreasing Healthcare-associated infections
• Challenges associated with ensuring reliable medication reconciliation
• Threats to patient safety caused by poor integration and communication between different care settings
• Causes and potential solutions to diagnostic error
• Patient safety in home care settings