Patient Safety Awareness Week

In 1999, the report in "To Err is Human" published by the Institute of Medicine, an American consulting institute, estimated that there were 44,000 to 98,000 people died of medical errors in the United States every year, and the medical loss was as high as US$17 ~ 29 billion. The surveys and studies of the frequency of medical event conducted in the United States , the United Kingdom , Australia and other countries also showed that the proportion of medical event was 2.9% ~ 16.6%, and 10% in average. As a result, practices that aimed at improving patient safety were rapidly carried out in the United States , the United Kingdom , Australia and other countries.

The key point to improve patient safety depends heavily on the efforts of medical care team in finding solutions from the unsafe operational practices. More importantly, patients’ involvement is needed to call for active and effective behaviors. In 2002, some private institutes in the United States launched an activity called Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW), which aimed at "arousing the public attention to involve in the related issues of patient safety," and launching different activities designed for consumers (patients and families) and healthcare providers. Almost immediately, these activities have become "talk of the town" in the United States within the recent years.

In 2003, the topic of the American PSAW was "Communication and Partnership" which emphasized that patient safety should start from patients themselves. Patients were advocated to "speak up" clearly so as to avoid medical errors. 5 steps of securing medical treatment safety were disclosed, teaching patients to pay attention to their rights when seeking medical care , as well as the best way to communicate with medical staff s .

In 2004, under the leadership of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), the PSAW launched a series of activities under the topic of " Patient Safety: The Power of Partnership," encouraging all medical and healthcare institutes to actively participate in the PSAW activity.

In Taiwan , the promotion of patient safety has started slightly later (as from 2003) than other foreign countries. Led by the Patient Safety Committee of the Department of Health, medical institutes initiated a series of patient safety improvement tasks, placing special emphasis on enabling the patients to involve in the promotion of patient safety. The American experience of holding PSAW was adopted, and a Taiwanese PSAW activity was held for the first time in 2004, and since 2019, in response to the WHO World Patient Safety Day, the PSAW activity has been scheduled for the week of September 17. Under the collaboration of the government, the medical systems, media, and the related private healthcare sectors, the establishment of a safe medical environment has continuously been committed. Listed below are some of the topics promoted in the annual patient safety programs: