International information on the safety and quality of health care

World Health Organization (WHO)

Patient Safety Website

In October 2004, the WHO launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety. This was in response to a World Health Assembly Resolution which urged WHO and Member States to pay the closest possible attention to patient safety. The Alliance provides a vehicle for international collaboration between Member States, the WHO Secretariat, technical experts, health professionals, industry groups and consumers. Each year the Alliance delivers a number of programmes designed to improve patient safety around the world. The website also contains links to patient safety resources.

Patient Safety Journal Library

The Patient Safety Journal library provides online access to the abstracts from articles related to patient safety published in 14 scientific journals. The journals are scanned every month.

International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS)

The World Alliance for Patient Safety was set up by the WHO to ensure that information about harm to patients is used as a source of learning to develop safer health care practices. The aim of the International Classification for Patient Safety is to define, harmonise and group patient safety concepts into an internationally agreed classification that is conducive to learning and system improvement. The classification needs to be adaptable yet consistent across the full spectrum of health care, and across cultures and languages.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

OECD Health Care Quality Indicators (HCQI) Project

Started in 2001, the objective of the OECD Health Care Quality Indicator Project is to track health care quality by developing a set of indicators that are based on comparable data and can be used to raise questions for further investigation on quality differences across countries. Recent publications relating to the project include

• Health Care Quality Indicators Project Initial Indicators Report (2006)
• Health Care Quality Indicators Project Conceptual Framework Paper (2006)
• Health Care Quality Indicators 2006 Project: Data Collection Update Report (2007)

OECD work in patient safety

One particular focus of the HCQI Project is to review, test and report data for a targeted set of patient safety indicators that can be reliably reported across OECD countries. This work is being undertaken in close collaboration with national and international organisations which specialise in patient safety and health care quality. The work to date in this area has included

• An extensive review of available measures of patient safety by an international panel of experts in patient safety: Selecting Indicators for Patient Safety at the Health Systems Level in OECD Countries, OECD Health Technical Paper No. 18 (2004)
• A technical manual for calculating rates for 15 Patient Safety Indicators: Facilitating Cross-National Comparisons for Patient Safety at the Health System Level in the OECD Countries, OECD Health Technical Paper No. 19 (2008)

New Zealand Ministry of Health

The New Zealand Ministry of Health has published the following reports related to safety and quality of health care in New Zealand.

• Adverse Events in New Zealand Public Hospitals: Principal Findings from a National Survey (2001)
• The Health of New Zealand: Total Population (2004)

Within the New Zealand Ministry of Health, the New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS) is the group responsible for the collection and dissemination of health-related data, published through its website.

United Kingdom National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA)

The United Kingdom National Patient Safety Agency is a Special Health Authority created to improve patient safety standards by informing, supporting and influencing organisations and professionals working in the health sector. It covers the UK health service through its three divisions

• National Reporting and Learning Service
• National Clinical Assessment Service
• National Research Ethics Service

Information on health care incidents and improving patient safety is published by the National Reporting and Learning Service.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)

Up-to-date information on the performance of Canada's health care system is published each year in the Health Care in Canada series available at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) website. Topics covered in the reports include the outcomes of care, access issues and quality of care. CIHI also annually publishes health indicators data on indicators designed to monitor the health of Canadians and the quality of their health system. The collected information covers approximately 98% of Canada's population.

United States of America

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

The USA Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is the leading Federal agency charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all the US population. AHRQ supports health services research that will improve the quality of health care and promote evidence-based decision making. AHRQ publishes a number of reports on the quality and safety of health care in the US, including the 2007 National Healthcare Quality Report and 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report, available through the AHRQ Measuring Healthcare Quality website.

AHRQ has also developed the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs). These are measures of health care quality that make use of readily available hospital inpatient administrative data.They are grouped into four modules that measure various aspects of health care quality:

• Prevention Quality Indicators, which indentify quality of care for various ambulatory-sensitive conditions
• Inpatient Quality Indicators, which provide a perspective on hospital quality of care
• Patient Safety Indicators, which help identify potential adverse events during hospitalisation
• Paediatic Qulaity Indicators, which screen for problems that paediatric patients experience

AHRQ also maintains the Patient Safety Network (AHRQ PSNet). This website features news and resources on patient safety. The site offers weekly updates of patient safety literature, news, tools, and meetings and a set of annotated links to research and other information on patient safety.

The Veterans Affairs National Centre for Patient Safety (NCPS)

The Veterans Affairs National Centre for Patient Safety was established in 1999 to develop and nurture a culture of safety throughout the Veterans Health Administration. Its goal is the nationwide reduction and prevention of inadvertent harm to patients as a result of their care. Its website contains a number of practical resources for improving patient safety.

Last reviewed by Safety and Quality on 19 September 2008