Over the last three decades, healthcare systems have undergone significant changes to their approach to quality and safety. The increased incidence of patient harm, along with high-profile cases making headlines globally, has placed significant pressure on the healthcare industry to act. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been leading campaigns and activities towards safer healthcare. The European Union (EU) with structural and legislative drives is following on WHO’s recommendations, with Ireland, as EU member state, being part of these changes.
However, up to date all these activities to augment patient safety keep their focus on acute settings and not the community. Evidence shows that community healthcare also suffers from adverse events and patient safety is compromised. Community settings are unique environments with limited resources (time, staff, finances), diverse patients’ needs (wide range of health issues) and varied healthcare environments (different settings with challenges in standardised care). These conditions place community health to be extremely vulnerable, however, community is still away from the limelight of patient safety.
The seminar’s objective is to create a platform where individuals from community, healthcare, policy, and academic settings can network and exchange knowledge in optimising people’s health in the community in Ireland. Patient safety needs to be explained within the context of adverse events within the community. This initiative is crucial because it enables the inter-sectoral sharing of innovative practices and research findings that identify enablers, barriers, and gaps in enhancing patient safety within the community. Providing a focused space for dissemination and collective input will inform future research, practice, and policy decisions.
This seminar will be of interest to all people receiving care at home, health service planners, managers and providers; health policy makers and academics. Seminar outputs will be disseminated via social media platforms to maximise impact.
