Skip Navigation


International Journal for Quality in Health Care Advance Access originally published online on April 9, 2009
International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2009 21(3):169-175; doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzp015
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
21/3/169    most recent
mzp015v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kristensen, S.
Right arrow Articles by Bartels, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kristensen, S.
Right arrow Articles by Bartels, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care; all rights reserved

Selection of indicators for continuous monitoring of patient safety: recommendations of the project ‘safety improvement for patients in Europe’

Solvejg Kristensen, Jan Mainz and Paul Bartels

European Society for Quality in Health Care, Office for Quality Indicators, Århus Denmark

Background. Initiatives to improve patient safety have high priority among health professionals and politicians in most developed countries. Currently, however, assessment of patient safety problems relies mainly on case-based methodologies. The evidence for their efficiency and reproducibility, proving that safety of care has improved with their usage, is questionable. The exact incidence and prevalence of patient safety quality problems are unknown. Therefore, there is a need for firm, evidence-based methods to survey and develop patient safety and derived activities.

Objectives. The objective of this paper is to describe a method to select patient safety indicators and present the indicators derived through this process.

Methods. The patient safety indicators were derived and recommended for use in a formalized consensus process based on literature review, targeted information gathering, expert consultation and rating procedures.

Results. A total of 42 indicators, of which 28 originated from existing international indicator programmes, were selected. The processes and outcome indicators that were recommended for institutional-level use in Europe were 24, covering safety of care aspects such as culture, infections, surgical complications, medication errors, obstetrics, falls and specific diagnostic areas.

Conclusion. The patient safety indicators recommended present a set of possible measures of patient safety. One of the future perspectives of implementing patient safety indicators for systematic monitoring is that it will be possible to continuously estimate the prevalence and incidence of patient safety quality problems. The lesson learnt from quality improvement is that it will pay off in terms of improving patient safety.

Keywords: safety indicators, patient safety, measurement of quality, systematic monitoring, improvement

Address reprint requests to: Solvejg Kristensen, E-mail: solkri{at}rm.dk

Accepted for publication March 20, 2009.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.