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Glossary in Patient Safety

This document defines key terms related to patient safety. It provides definitions for over 30 terms including actions, alerts or advisories, apology, authority gradient, contributing factors, culture of patient safety, disclosure, early warning system, governance, harm, hazard, healthcare organization, high reliability organizations, human factors, incident analysis, incident management, patient safety incident, patient safety, patient, family, prospective analysis, providers, quality improvement, reporting, resilience, risk management, risk mitigation, risk, system levels, system, systems thinking, team, and teamwork. The definitions are intended to outline concepts important to understanding patient safety.

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42 views3 pages

Glossary in Patient Safety

This document defines key terms related to patient safety. It provides definitions for over 30 terms including actions, alerts or advisories, apology, authority gradient, contributing factors, culture of patient safety, disclosure, early warning system, governance, harm, hazard, healthcare organization, high reliability organizations, human factors, incident analysis, incident management, patient safety incident, patient safety, patient, family, prospective analysis, providers, quality improvement, reporting, resilience, risk management, risk mitigation, risk, system levels, system, systems thinking, team, and teamwork. The definitions are intended to outline concepts important to understanding patient safety.

Uploaded by

PIH SHT
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Glossary in Patient Safety

Actions (taken to reduce risk of harm): Actions taken to reduce, manage, or control any future
harm, or probability of harm.

Alerts or advisories: An alert or advisory is a piece of information that has been produced and
publicly posted that outlines a specific type of patient safety incident or series of incidents that did
occur or could occur.

Apology: A genuine expression of sympathy or regret, a statement that one is sorry for what has
happened. An apology includes an acknowledgement of responsibility if such responsibility has been
determined after the analysis of the adverse event.

Authority gradient: Balance of decision-making power or the steepness of command and hierarchy
in a given situation.

Contributing factors: A circumstance, action or influence which is thought to have played a part in
the origin or development of an incident or to increase the risk of an incident.

Culture, Patient Safety: Culture refers to shared values (what is important) and beliefs (what is held
to be true) that interact with a system’s structures and control mechanisms to produce behavioural
norms.

Disclosure: The process by which a patient safety incident is communicated to the patient by health
care providers.

Early warning system: A systemic process for evaluating and measuring risks early in order to
take pre-emptive steps to minimize their impact.

Governance: The body having accountability and legal responsibility for the overall performance of
an organization and oversight of decisions.

Harm: Impairment of structure or function of the body and/or any deleterious effect arising therefrom.
Harm includes disease, injury, suffering, disability and death.

Hazard: Situations with the potential to cause harm.

Healthcare organization: An organization that provides health services in any healthcare sector.

High Reliability Organizations (HROs): Organisations that have few accidents despite operating
in highly dynamic, technologically rich and hazardous industries.

Human Factors: A discipline addressing human behaviour, abilities, limitations, and relationship to
the work environment (physical, organizational, cultural), with the goal to promote efficiency, safety
and effectiveness by improving the design of technologies, processes and work systems..

Incident Analysis: A structured process that aims to identify what happened, how and why it
happened, what can be done to reduce the risk of recurrence and make care safer, and what was
learned. It is also referred to as system based analysis.

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Incident Management: The various actions and process required to conduct the immediate and
ongoing activities following an incident. Incident analysis is a component of incident management.

Patient safety incident: An event or circumstance which could have resulted, or did result, in
unnecessary harm to a patient. There are three types of patient safety incidents:

 Harmful incident: A patient safety incident that resulted in harm to the patient. Replaces
"preventable adverse event”
 Near miss: A patient safety incident that did not reach the patient and therefore no harm
resulted.
 No-harm incident: A patient safety incident that reached the patient but no discernible harm
resulted.
Patient safety: The pursuit of the reduction and mitigation of unsafe acts within the health care
system, as well as the use of best practices shown to lead to optimal patient outcomes.

Patient: A person who is receiving, has received, or has requested health care.

Family: A person(s) whom the patient wishes to be involved with them in care, and acting on behalf
of and in the interest of the patient.

Prospective analysis: An analytical tool to assess and mitigate harm or loss by analyzing a
situation or process that carries with it some inherent risk. Its purpose is to identify the way in which
a process might potentially fail, with the goal to eliminate or reduce the likelihood or outcome
severity of such a failure.

Providers: Refers to physicians, professional, unregulated staff, and others engaged in the delivery
of health services.

Quality Improvement (QI): A formal approach to the analysis of performance and systematic efforts
to improve it. There are numerous models used.

Reporting: The communication of information about a patient safety incident through appropriate
channels inside or outside of healthcare organizations, for the purpose of reducing the risk of
occurrence of patient safety incidents in the future.

Resilience: The degree to which a system continuously prevents, detects, mitigates or ameliorates
hazards or incidents so that an organization can “bounce back” to its original ability to provide core
functions.

Risk management: An organized effort to identify, assess and reduce, where appropriate, risks to
patients, visitors, staff and organizational assets. Activities are undertaken to identify, analyze and
educate, and to structure processes to reduce the likelihood of adverse events.

Risk mitigation: The process of identifying and implementing precautions or controls that will most
effectively reduce the consequence or likelihood of occurrence of a risk.

Risk: The probability that a specific adverse event will occur in a specific time period or as a result of
a specific situation.

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System Levels: Systems are generally viewed from various levels because they are differences in
goals, structures and ways of working in different parts of the system.

System: A health system, or healthcare system, is the sum of all the organizations, institutions, and
resources whose primary purpose is to deliver health care services to meet the health needs of a
target population.

Systems Thinking: An approach that centers on the dynamic interaction, synchronization and
integration of system components and sub-components (e.g. people, processes, technology,
incentives, decisions, culture).

Team: Two or more people who interact dynamically, interdependently, and adaptively toward a
common and valued goal/objective/ mission. Patients/families are part of the team.

Teamwork: Team members working together to achieve a shared goal.

References
- Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI)

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