The webinar on Systems Thinking for Patient Safety was organized on 23 November 2023 within the frames of the Global Patient Safety Collaborative (GPSC) – the strategic initiative jointly established by WHO and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with the objective of securing and scaling up global action on patient safety, as well as reducing the risk of avoidable harm and improving the safety of health systems at the country level. The webinar was organized by Patient Safety Flagship Unit in collaboration with Imperial College London (ICL) - WHO's academic partner for the GPSC.
Systems thinking is crucial for patient safety, especially nowadays, considering that patient care occurs within complex health care systems. For ensuring sustainable change and achievement of better health outcomes it’s essential to create environments where patient safety is integral to all health care processes and is addressed in a comprehensive way. During the webinar, the concept of systems thinking and how it relates to patient safety was explored and discussed. Specifically, the following topics were covered:
- lessons from other high-risk industries and their relevance to health and patient safety;
- practical application of systems thinking in patient safety;
- the necessity of systems thinking in clinical care and for clinical care staff; and
- influence of systems thinking on the global patient safety agenda.