OECD Work in Patient Safety

A particular focus for the HCQI Project is the review, testing and reporting of data for a targeted set of indicators of patient safety that can be reliably reported across OECD countries.  This work is being undertaken in close collaboration with national and international organisations specialising in quality and patient safety, including the World Health Organization’s Global Alliance on Patient Safety, the European Commission-sponsored SIMPATIE Project and national safety organisations in OECD member countries. 

The HCQI Project has recently developed a manual to facilitate cross national comparisons of indicators for patient safety through the provision of detailed practical advice on calculating each indicator in a selected set of Patient Safety Indicators utilising national hospital administrative databases. Click here to view a copy of the document.

In June 2006 the OECD-Irish Department of Health Seminar on Patient Safety Data Systems was convened in Dublin, Ireland. Click here to view a copy of the report from this event.

The HCQI’s past work in this area has involved an extensive review of available measures of patient safety by an internationally renowned expert panel in patient safety.  Their findings were released in the OECD Health Technical Paper No. 18 Selecting Indicators for Patient Safety at the Health Systems Level in OECD Countries (see below).  Using a structured review process, the expert panel set out to select indicators to cover five key areas of patient safety: areas hospital-acquired infections, sentinel events, operative and postoperative complications, obstetrics, and other care related adverse events. This report proposes 21 indicators as follows: