Join the Unique Health team, and many others around the world, in celebrating World Patient Safety Day 2024!
Today, on 17 September 2024, we at Unique Health are proud to join the global conversation in promoting safer healthcare practices. This year’s theme, “Get it right, make it safe,” highlights a critical aspect of patient safety: improving diagnosis. The World Health Organization’s campaign underscores the importance of accuracy in diagnosis as a cornerstone of effective and safe patient care.
To aid in realising this goal, the World Health Organization provided the following key campaign messages:
4 Guidelines to Aid in Diagnosis
Diagnostic errors account for 16% of preventable patient harm and are common in all health care settings. Diagnostic errors can include missed, incorrect, delayed or miscommunicated diagnoses. They can worsen patient outcomes and at times lead to prolonged or severe illness disability, or even death, and increased health care costs.
The diagnostic process involves many iterative steps, including the patient’s initial presentation; history taking and examination; diagnostic testing, discussion, and communication of results; collaboration and coordination; final diagnosis and treatment plan; follow-up and re-evaluation. Errors can occur at any stage.
Policy-makers and health care leaders should foster positive workplace environments and provide quality diagnostic tools; health workers should be encouraged to continuously develop their skills and address unconscious bias in judgement; and patients should be supported to be actively engaged throughout their diagnostic journey.
Correct and timely diagnosis requires collaboration among patients, families, caregivers, health workers, health care leaders and policy-makers. All stakeholders must be engaged in shaping the diagnostic process and empowered to voice any concerns.
