Solutions to problems that have already been solved

Technology has had a profound impact on the quality of healthcare in Canada and around the world.

Not only does it allow for better care to be delivered at the bedside, it also has the ability to bring healthcare providers together in ways that would have been impossible a decade ago.

Thanks to Electronic Medical Records (EMR), which are in various stages of implementation across the country, a patient’s care providers, regardless of where they’re located, are able to instantly access and work from the most up to date information.

Advancements in information technology make these types of systems a reality.

With respect to patient safety, wouldn’t it great if there was a tool that could provide us with instant access to lessons learned following a patient safety incident in other organizations? Wouldn’t it be great if we could share what we’ve learned from our own patient safety incidents so that others may prevent similar incidents from happening in their organizations?

When it comes to patient safety, it’s important to learn from our mistakes and share them with others. The advancement of Health IT makes this possible on a global scale. There is no reason that a harmful incident suffered by one patient should ever happen to another. Regardless of jurisdiction, we are all committed to making patient care safer.

Organizations across Canada and around the world are doing a great job in analysing and learning from their incidents. Sharing that learning is so important in order to really improve patient safety.

This is where Global Patient Safety Alerts comes in – a one-stop searchable database where you can find information on patient safety alerts, advisories and recommendations. You’re able to share your own learning, but you’re also able to learn from others.

With Global Patient Safety Alerts, you can start telling each other what happened in your organization, what you learned from it, what you did to make your patients safer and what you can recommend to other organizations who may find themselves in a similar situation.

For instance, if you go to www.globalpatientsafetyalerts.com and search for “infection”, you will find 40 alerts and 207 recommendations from 12 organizations who have agreed to share their info with you. Instant access to this type of information isn’t found anywhere else on the web.

Recognized by the World Health Organization and its member countries, Global Patient Safety Alerts contains more than 684 alerts and 3,400 recommendations from 23 contributing organizations around the world, and the numbers are growing.

You can also learn about how your organization can contribute to improving patient safety beyond the walls on your institutions by sharing your own alerts and recommendations with others.

There are many who are struggling with similar incidents and Global Patient Safety Alerts allows us to leverage the power of information technology for the greater good and to ensure that no one is stuck without a solution to a problem others have already solved, and that no patient has to needlessly suffer as a result.

We need to work together and learn from each other if we’re going to make a difference. This technology is vital to bringing all of us together and allowing us to share this valuable information freely.