Filling the gaps in patient safety

The summit, co-hosted by the United Kingdom and Germany, brought together high-level government ministers, policymakers, and healthcare experts from more than 15 countries around the world to discuss how to improve patient safety.

Egbert Schillings, CEO of WISH

Overcoming the challenges

Established in 2009, LHSN has worked with 25 health systems in more than a dozen countries to help overcome the challenges faced in providing high-value care to the populations that they serve. Members of LHSN compare performance relative to their peers, learn from experts and frontline implementers during webinars, and are active members in a community committed to care improvement and innovation. LHSN is based at Imperial College in London and has partnered with WISH to improve healthcare policy around the world.

In 2013, WISH led a major initiative on the critical issue of patient safety, with a research forum chaired by Dr Peter Pronovost, director of The Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins.

Comparison of systems

The network has used that research as a springboard to launch further studies on how different health systems around the world protect patient safety by reducing medical error. Early findings, presented at the Patient Safety Global Action Summit 2016, identified gaps in patient safety in primary care, mental health, and community healthcare. LHSN will present its complete report at WISH’s upcoming Summit in November.

Egbert Schillings, CEO of WISH, spoke as part of an expert panel on the topic “Learning from other industries and countries to improve patient safety”.

He said: “The vision of our founder, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, was for WISH to inform and influence policymakers at the highest levels so as to improve healthcare for populations everywhere. This summit in London is the first of its kind, the most august group of patient safety experts and ministers ever convened on the topic of preventing harm in the delivery of healthcare. With WISH research, staff, and our collaborators so integral to the proceedings, we are delivering on our founder’s vision.”