New Patient Safety Initiative to Transform Healthcare's Ability to Share and Learn

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Sep 21, 2017, 03:00 ET

LONDON, September 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Patient Safety Learning, a new not for profit organisation that will help make healthcare and social care safer by sharing learning, encouraging culture change and improving the quality of investigations, will be launched at an event in London today.

Speakers at the Patient Safety Learning launch event will include James Titcombe, Professor Alison Leary, Professor Murray Anderson-Wallace and Dr Carl Macrae. The keynote speech was delivered by Julie Bailey, whose campaigning on behalf of those affected by the tragic events at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust fundamentally altered the patient safety landscape in the UK.

Patient Safety Learning has been created with input from respected names in patient safety and is driven by a conviction that more can be done to reduce avoidable harm. An early project will be creating a platform to share the learning from incidents. Dr Carl Macrae, the influential patient safety researcher, is working on this.

Patient Safety Learning will work with healthcare providers to involve patients and families in investigations, ensuring their input makes a difference. Professor Murray Anderson-Wallace, the independent healthcare advisor, journalist and producer, has created a series of podcasts on this topic.

Patient Safety Learning will be providing training resources to ensure investigations are carried out to a consistently high standard. An awards scheme will recognise and share local initiatives that have made a real improvement.

James Titcombe OBE, who is heading up the new organisation, said, "We believe that through working closely with patients, healthcare professionals and safety specialists, Patient Safety Learning can play an important role in supporting healthcare organisations to provide safer care."

Patient Safety Learning will initially be supported by Datix and will work together on some joint projects, including the mining of Datix data for patient safety insights with Professor Alison Leary, Chair of Healthcare and Workforce Modelling at London South Bank University.

Seyed Mortazavi, Datix Chief Executive, said, "Our mission to improve patient outcomes globally has never been more pertinent. Datix has long understood the barriers to patient safety improvement and builds software to overcome them. By supporting thought leadership work such as the creation of Patient Safety Learning and sharing our combined knowledge we can be confident of a future where healthcare organisations can continue to create the safest environment for patients and staff."

About Patient Safety Learning
Patient Safety Learning helps health and social care organisations protect patients and service users from harm through sharing learning, promoting best practice and encouraging a culture of safety for patients, service users and health and social care workers.

Patient Safety Learning is non-political, not-for-profit and not formally affiliated with any other organisation.

About Datix
Datix has been a global pioneer in the field of patient safety over the past three decades and today is the leading provider of software for patient safety, risk management and incident reporting for the healthcare sector.

Datix aims to build and promote a culture of safety within healthcare organisations, recruiting professionals who are passionate about improving healthcare and championing technological innovation. Datix continually invests in its software and services, maintaining a leadership position at the forefront of the worldwide patient safety movement.

Datix is focused on the health and social care sector. Its customers include public and private hospitals, primary care providers, GP surgeries, mental health and ambulance service providers. Within the UK this includes more than 75% of the National Health Service. Internationally the Datix client base is growing rapidly and includes large scale deployments in the USA and Canada as well as customers in Europe, Australia and the Middle East. Datix has offices in London, Chicago and Washington DC, with partners in the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.